Sydney flight path shake-up locked in as cargo planes set to land at new airport

A shake-up of flight paths over Sydney will take effect on July 9, clearing the way for the first cargo aircraft to land at the city’s new $6 billion international airport around the clock later that month.

The flight paths for Sydney Airport most affected as part of the shake up to airspace over the city will be those used by aircraft taking off to the north from its main north-south runway before arcing towards the north-west over inner west suburbs such as Summer Hill, Ashfield and Croydon. The other change is to aircraft heading west from the east-west runway.

Subject to a determination by federal Transport Minister Catherine King, freighter aircraft that can land or take off at Sydney Airport during the early hours at present are set to be forced to use the new curfew-free airport in the city’s far west. Up to 15 cargo flights a day can fly in or out of Sydney Airport between 11am and 6pm.

The start of cargo flights at Western Sydney Airport in late July, followed by passenger aircraft three months later, will end the privately operated Kingsford Smith Airport’s long-held monopoly.

In a boost to the new competitor, Western Sydney Airport has signed its third cargo operator after Emirates-owned dnata decided to invest $32 million, joining Qantas and Menzies in setting up facilities in a new freight precinct near the southern end of the 3.7-kilometre runway.

Western Sydney Airport chief executive Simon Hickey said the start of freight aircraft operations, followed by international passenger flights in October, signalled the start of a new era.

“It’s going to be Sydney’s first curfew-free airport. It’s going to bring economic activity over time to western Sydney [and] we’re already seeing a lot of development around the airport,” he said.

Hickey said the exact date in late July for the first cargo flights would be decided by airlines and cargo terminal operators.

Large freighter aircraft will be parked at bays – referred to as “hard stands” – in front of the warehouses at the new hub, loading high-value goods ranging from flowers and seafood to pharmaceutical goods destined for markets in Asia and further abroad.

In its draft master plan, the new airport has forecast it will handle 293,000 tonnes of cargo by 2030, increasing to 546,700 tonnes within the next two decades. In comparison, Sydney Airport estimates it will handle 1.4 million tonnes of freight by 2045, up from about 600,000 tonnes today.

“We’re not trying to get there by day one. What we’re trying to do is grow over time and grow with the needs of western Sydney and Sydney,” Hickey said of the forecasts.

Dnata will fit out a large warehouse in the cargo hub and expects to handle its first freight in late July when planes start landing there. It will neighbour an in-flight catering facility dnata is building which will be capable of producing three million meals annually.

Dnata’s Australian airport operations chief Burt Sigsworth said it expected cargo volumes at the new curfew-free airport to grow as western Sydney expanded.

“We certainly have a view that there’ll be enough volume to make that a good investment,” he said.

“We service airports all over the world. We’ve seen new airports come in the past, and our experience is that they do grow and that it’s good to be there at the outset.”

The company handles freight for 40 international airlines at airports across Australia, including Emirates and most of the Chinese carriers.

Airservices, which oversees the country’s civilian airspace, confirmed that flight path changes for the Sydney basin would come into effect on July 9.

“Existing Sydney Airport noise‑sharing arrangements will remain unchanged, meaning communities can continue to expect a spread of aircraft movements similar to current operations,” it said.

Air New Zealand will be the first foreign airline to fly to Western Sydney Airport when it launches passenger flights between the new hub and Auckland on October 26. It will be followed by Singapore Airlines starting flights to the new airport on November 23.

Hickey said the two airlines had reported that ticket sales for their launch flights were “going really well”.

Qantas and its budget offshoot Jetstar have committed to basing 15 domestic aircraft at the government-owned airport but have yet to confirm when they will launch flights there. Airlines require less notice for domestic flight bookings than for international services.

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