Western Sydney Airport (IATA: WSI, ICAO: YSWS), officially named Western Sydney International (Nancy Bird Walton) Airport and also known as Badgerys Creek Airport, is an international airport in Luddenham and Badgerys Creek in New South Wales, Australia, approximately 44 km (27 mi) west of the Sydney central business district. Together with the development of surrounding areas, it is a key part of the Western Sydney Aerotropolis plan. The airport commenced its first commercial cargo flights on 26 July 2026, with passenger operations scheduled to commence on 25 October 2026. Operated by WSA Co Limited, which is wholly owned by the Australian Government, the airport offers 24-hour and curfew-free operations and supplements Sydney Airport, which has reached capacity due to a legislated curfew and flight caps. It is the first major airport in Australia to not have an air traffic control tower on site. The site of the airport was officially designated by the federal government on 15 April 2014, after decades of debate on the location of another airport within Greater Sydney. The airport will be constructed in stages. Stage 1 consists of a single 3.7 km (2.3 mi) runway and a single integrated international and domestic terminal, which is expected to handle up to 10 million annual passengers. Construction of Stage 1 began on 24 September 2018, and major construction was completed in June 2025. Future stages of the airport are expected to begin after Stage 1, and will include an expanded or additional terminal and a second parallel runway. This will allow the airport to handle approximately 82 million annual passengers by 2063.
History
Operating since 1919, Sydney Airport is one of the world's oldest airports. Located only 8 km (5 mi) from the city centre, the airport site is now hemmed in on three sides by urban growth and on the fourth side by Botany Bay. The aforementioned reasons mean that expansion of Sydney Airport is highly difficult, as to expand the field, large areas of land need to be reclaimed from the sea or gathered through land expropriation and suburb demolitions, both of which are extremely costly solutions. There have thus been various proposals to build a second airport for Sydney since the 1960s.
The federal government announced in February 1986 that Badgerys Creek had been chosen as the location for a second major airport for Sydney. The federal government then undertook a series of land acquisitions for the site, primarily during the period 1986 to 1991, and spent approximately A$170 million. The resulting site totalled 1,780 hectares (4,400 acres). However, following the purchase, the decision was made by the government that construction of a third runway at Sydney Airport was more appropriate, and all work on the site was halted. Despite the expansion, concerns remained that Sydney Airport would run out of capacity by 2030, especially since the introduction of strict night flying restrictions in 1995. Planning for a second airport thus began again in earnest in 2008. A 3,200-page joint Federal/NSW study released in 2012 concluded that Badgerys Creek was "clearly the best site for a much-needed second airport for Sydney" and recommended that planning should start. On 15 April 2014, the federal government announced that Badgerys Creek would be the site of the Second Sydney Airport. In September 2018, construction works began at the Badgerys Creek Airport site.
On 4 March 2019, the federal government announced that the airport would be named Nancy Bird Walton International Airport in honour of the Australian aviator Nancy Bird Walton. New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian stated that the naming is an "absolutely inspiring choice" as the name for the new airport. Prime minister Scott Morrison stated that "we now recognise Australia's greatest female aviation pioneer" in the naming of the airport, and members of Walton's family stated that they were "extremely excited and thrilled, and it's just a huge honour" for their mother and grandmother. On 10 December 2020, a light aircraft made an emergency landing on earthworks at the construction site, which was the airport's first arrival. The first official arrival at the airport took place on 2 October 2024, being a Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche registered as VH-8MN. In July 2025, WSA Co proposed to have the airport precinct designated as a separate suburb known as Cabrogal, named after the Cabrogal people of the Dharug nation based in the Cumberland Plain area. The airport opened for regular freight services on 27 July 2026, with initial operators Qantas Freight, Texel Air and Team Global Express. Regularly scheduled passenger services will follow from 25 October 2026, the first domestic flight to depart the airport for Gold Coast at 11 am operated by Jetstar. Air New Zealand is scheduled to commence the first international services to the airport from Auckland on 26 October 2026
Facilities
Runway
Runway 05/23 is the main and only runway of the airport, running northeast-southwest with a paved length of 3,700m (12,139ft) and Code F categorisation, capable of handling the largest aircraft such as Boeing 747 and Airbus A380. Reciprocal runway operations (taking off and landing from the same direction) are preferred to/from the southwest to minimise noise.
Digital remote air traffic control tower The airport is the first in Australia to open without a traditional control tower, instead equipped with a remote digital air traffic control tower. The remote tower consists of 20 cameras located atop a 45 metre mast, streaming video back to controllers located in a data centre 20km away at Eastern Creek. The quality and safety of the tower has been criticised by the Sydney Morning Herald.
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