On Sydney’s rural fringes, in the suburb of Badgerys Creek, a pristine new airport terminal sits waiting ahead of its expected opening in late 2026.
Stretches of road and rail are being laid out to Western Sydney international airport, 44km west of the city centre, at a combined cost of $19bn to the federal and NSW governments.
But uncertainty remains over what will be ready and when – especially a high-speed rail connection – and the airlines have taken notice. So far, only Qantas, Jetstar, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand have confirmed their plans to use the airport.
Mathew Hounsell, a transport researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, says other carriers will be reluctant to move operations from Sydney airport to Western Sydney “without a half-an-hour connection to the CBD”. That is not remotely plausible in the medium-term, which means passengers may find the airport becomes home to low-cost airlines offering discounted flights.
So come December 2026, as they set out for Western Sydney international armed with cut-price tickets to Bali or Phuket, just how will they be travelling there? Here’s what’s in the works.
High-speed rail
A high-speed metro line connecting the airport to the city’s rail network (though not directly to the city centre), once planned to open with the terminal, has already been pushed back, potentially by up to a year.
A dispute between the state government and the private consortium building the line reportedly threatens to delay its opening until December 2027.
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Peter Davies, a professor of urban sustainability at Macquarie University, says it is not unusual for transport links to be finished after an airport has opened. But the “generational mistake” was to put on hold a connection with the existing Metro North West line at Tallawong, he says.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has said the government does not now have the funding to see the line through, although a business case is being developed. Plans to link the airport to the Bankstown end of the line or the metro line to Parramatta, both still under construction, have been shelved.
Instead, when the airport metro opens it will terminate at St Marys – a journey time estimated at about 15 minutes – where passengers will have to change on to the T1 heavy rail line. The trip from St Marys to Central takes more than 50 minutes.
But there is some good news. Unlike at Sydney airport, where T8 line users pay a hefty station access fee ($17.92 for adults travelling without a concession) on top of their Opal fare, Sydney Metro says there are no extra fees proposed for the Western Sydney airport terminal station.
Toll-free road
The key to unlocking access to the airport for greater Sydney is the construction of the M12 motorway, a 16km section of road connecting the terminal to the M7. Transport for NSW has said it will open in stages, starting next year.
Transurban, which operates tolling on the M7, told shareholders in August it expected the new road to open around March.
The airport and the NSW government have been keen to emphasise that the M12 will be toll-free. A spokesperson for Transport for NSW said the M4 would also provide toll-free access to and from Parramatta, “while other arteries give motorists a choice on connecting to other destinations around the city”.
Those choices after the M12 meets the M7 include a partly tolled journey to the Sydney CBD via the M4, or a fully tolled journey via the M5 to catch connecting flights from Kingsford Smith.
When the airport opens, there will be more than 6,000 car parking spaces, including those with electric vehicle charging stations. The airport is still finalising who will operate car parking and how much it will cost.
In the initial period after opening, hopes may ride on the airport’s popularity among western Sydney residents, who can reach the airport by existing local roads.
The NSW government has announced six new local bus services connecting suburbs including Penrith, Campbelltown, Liverpool, Mount Druitt and Leppington to the airport using existing roads, which will begin this year.
What about Uber – or SkyBus?
At Melbourne’s Tullamarine, where airport rail has been pushed back until at least 2030, it’s often a toss-up between travelling by taxi or rideshare, or taking the SkyBus for the 25km journey into the CBD.
When the Guardian visited the new Western Sydney terminal this year, pickup points had already been established. Uber is in discussions with the airport.
The company did not say whether a dedicated pickup zone, like the one being trialled at Sydney airport – allowing users to book a ride at the terminal instead of after they leave the airport – could be rolled out at Western Sydney international. The 12-month trial at Kingsford Smith, which began in September last year, in theory expires next month.
Western Sydney airport did not say whether a SkyBus service could operate between the terminal and the Sydney CBD or Kingsford Smith.
The SkyBus operator Kinetic declined to comment. Come late 2026, we’ll know the answers.
