# Sydney's new airport takes on Melbourne's Avalon

> Western Sydney international airport opens this weekend with seven airlines and ambitions to serve ten million passengers yearly, far outpacing Melbourne's struggling secondary hub.
- Title: Sydney's new airport takes on Melbourne's Avalon | Shortify
- Summary: Western Sydney international airport opens this weekend with seven airlines and ambitions to serve ten million passengers yearly, far outpacing Melbourne's…
- Keywords: western sydney international airport, avalon airport, sydney, melbourne, secondary airports, aviation, kingsford smith, tullamarine, news, politics, Sydney's, airport
- Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/22/western-sydney-international-airport-melbourne-avalon
- Published: 2026-10-21T14:00:22+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: western sydney international airport, avalon airport, sydney, melbourne, secondary airports, aviation, kingsford smith, tullamarine, news, politics
## Sydney's second airport launches
Western Sydney international airport begins commercial flights this Sunday from architecturally lauded terminals. The airport promises to relieve congestion at Kingsford Smith and offer more competition.
## Comparing two secondary hubs
Both Western Sydney and Melbourne's Avalon airport share comparable footprints, sit roughly sixty kilometres from their city centres, and launched with Jetstar. But the airports insist they are fundamentally different.
## Avalon's modest track record
Avalon, built in nineteen fifty-two as a military airfield, has never taken off as a major passenger alternative to Tullamarine. It handles one point two million passengers yearly with fifty-five to sixty commercial flights weekly.
## Avalon's international services
Avalon resumed international flights earlier this year after a six-year pandemic break. The only international route offered is to Bali, alongside domestic services to Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and the Gold Coast.
## Western Sydney's ambitious targets
Federal transport minister Catherine King says Western Sydney will serve up to ten million passengers annually with scalable expansion. The airport plans to serve up to eighty million passengers yearly by twenty sixty.
## Seven airlines already signed up
Western Sydney launches with seven airlines including legacy carriers Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and Qatar Airways. Avalon launched with only Jetstar and has struggled to attract additional carriers.
## Operational advantages for Western Sydney
Kingsford Smith faces strict movement limits of eighty takeoffs and landings per hour plus an eleven pm to six am curfew.Western Sydney is approved to run twenty-four hours daily, giving it a significant operational edge.
## Rail access differs between cities
Kingsford Smith has a quick rail link to Sydney's CBD. Western Sydney's promised rail links are not due until twenty twenty-seven or twenty twenty-eight. Neither of Melbourne's airports has supporting rail infrastructure.
## Avalon's freight-focused strategy
Linfox, which leased Avalon from the commonwealth in nineteen ninety-seven with a ninety-nine-year lease, runs it as a logistics operation.
## Western Sydney's viability timeline
Professor Rico Merkert from the University of Sydney says Western Sydney may need ten years to become commercially viable and may require government financial support.

> If [Avalon] airport doesn't break even it doesn't really matter so long as the rest of the organisation benefits financially from that activity.
## Key takeaway

Western Sydney international airport launches Sunday with seven airlines and plans for ten million annual passengers, vastly exceeding Melbourne's Avalon, which has struggled since opening over two decades ago.