‘Slick operation’: Flying into Sydney’s new airport beats Mascot congestion

Flying into Australia’s new major international airport, Qantas first officer Jay Bayliss finds it smoother than Sydney Airport at Mascot where space is at a premium both on the ground and in the air.

“You get no delays coming in. If you’re going in and out of Sydney [Airport], quite often you can end up being slowed down. You get a lot of holding. Delays on the ground can be endless sometimes,” he said.

“But coming here, it’s such a slick operation.”

Bayliss and captain Taryn Lloyd flew into Western Sydney International Airport on Friday on an Airbus A321, which is the first of three larger replacement planes to join Qantas’ freight operations.

“I reckon every time I park in here, we’re still a bit awed by how big and flash it is – especially at night, it’s really impressive,” said Lloyd, a former RAAF pilot.

A fitout that is under way at Qantas’ highly automated freight facility at the new $6 billion airport at Luddenham comes just days before the terminal opens to passengers on Sunday, when a Jetstar aircraft will take off for the Gold Coast.

Qantas Freight executive manager Igor Kwiatkowski said the new facility was the “jewel in the crown” of its cargo operations, which operated as part of a joint venture with Australia Post.

“This provides the growth vehicle. Kingsford Smith is a great airport, but it hasn’t got oodles of space for expansion,” he said.

“So this creates a great opportunity for that. We’ve spent a lot of time, effort, energy, blood, sweat and tears to get to this point.”

Since the airport’s cargo hub opened in late July, Qantas has been flying about a dozen freighter aircraft in and out a night from Monday to Thursday.

With the A321s replacing smaller BAE 146-300 aircraft, which carry less than half the weight, Qantas would operate slightly fewer flights to the airport in coming months “but with much bigger capacity”, Kwiatkowski said.

The number of flights to and from the airport, however, will rise during busy periods for parcel deliveries such as Black Friday sales and the lead-up to Christmas, as well as when Qantas starts international cargo services from western Sydney as early as next year.

Turning what were A321 domestic passenger planes into dedicated cargo aircraft has been an 18-month exercise.

Apart from stripping out seats, toilets and galleys, a large hole had to be cut in the side of each so that large automatic doors could be installed to allow the entry of cargo containers.

Strengthening the aircraft floors was also crucial to ensure they could handle containers weighing up to six tonnes. Smaller containers are packed into the belly of the aircraft.

“Doors are important and floors are important – they’re the two biggest features after you take the seats out,” Kwiatkowski explained.

Qantas’ automated freight facility at the new airport is one of its largest investments outside of spending on new aircraft. “It’s got the biggest temperature-controlled storage capacity in Australia,” Kwiatkowski said.

Australia Post network operations general manager Mark Davies said the new airport’s curfew-free status had added flexibility to air-freight operations across the country.

“If you look at where Sydney is growing, it’s in this region [in the west]. The ability for customers to actually have a 24/7 airport on their doorstep means that they can actually take orders later in the day, and still get the next day delivery,” he said.

Western Sydney Airport’s 733,000-square-metre cargo precinct is big enough to handle eight large Boeing 747 freighters or 16 smaller Airbus A320 planes. Qantas expects to complete fitting out its 24,000-square-metre freight facility by early next year

The entire first stage of the cargo hub – also home to Menzies Aviation and Dubai-owned dnata – is capable of handling at least a quarter of a million tonnes of freight annually, ending the privately owned Kingsford Smith Airport’s monopoly in the Sydney basin.

While Jetstar starts services on Sunday, Qantas will not begin flying passenger aircraft from the new airport until March 28 next year. The red-tailed airline will operate four flights a week to both Melbourne and Brisbane, using QantasLink Embraer E190s.

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