Western Sydney Airport schedules first passenger service for Oct. 25
The government scheduled the airport’s first passenger service for Oct. 25, with Jetstar’s JQ362 flight to the Gold Coast due to depart at 11 a.m. AEDT.
Event / data period: 2026-10-25
Published: · Updated:
Passenger services at Western Sydney International Airport were scheduled to begin on Sunday, 25 October, opening a new aviation gateway for Sydney’s west. Australia’s Infrastructure Minister Catherine King’s joint release with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Jetstar flight JQ362 was scheduled to depart at 11am Australian Eastern Daylight Time for the Gold Coast, marking the airport’s first passenger service.
The project was more than 40 years in the making: Badgerys Creek was designated for Sydney’s second major airport in 1986, followed by 15 years of planning, seven years of construction and a further year of testing. The release calls it Australia’s first major new airport in more than 50 years.
The terminal required more than nine million work hours; more than 13,000 workers delivered the broader precinct, and over half were from Western Sydney. These are cumulative project-delivery figures, not ongoing airport employment.
The terminal brings domestic and international passengers under one roof and includes more than 40 check-in kiosks and 34 bag-drop kiosks. The airport is intended to operate around the clock without a curfew. The government says the runway can accommodate ultra-long-haul aircraft, positioning the facility to serve routes as demand develops; that capacity statement is not a forecast of passenger numbers or flight frequency.
International airlines named in the release are Fiji Airways, Vietjet, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways. Qantas and Jetstar are identified as domestic operators. The Prime Minister said the first international flight was due to leave for Auckland on Monday, 26 October.
The airport is part of what the release calls an $18 billion investment in Australia’s third-largest economy, Western Sydney; that figure refers to the broader regional investment context, not a stated airport-only construction cost. Future projects include the Sydney Metro Airport rail connection and upgrades to Elizabeth Drive, Fifteenth Avenue and Mamre Road.
Data
Western Sydney Airport project delivery
A project-lifetime worker count reported at the airport’s opening, with its lower-bound qualifier preserved.
- Workers who helped deliver the Western Sydney Airport precinct, lower-bound count
- ≥13,000 people
- 2026-10 · Observed
Methodology
The Australian Government’s 25 October 2026 opening release says more than 13,000 workers helped deliver the broader airport precinct and more than half called Western Sydney home. The figure is a cumulative project-delivery count reported at opening, not a count of current airport staff, jobs held at once, or annual employment. “More than” is retained as a lower bound.
Updated:
Subjects and places
Subject proposals
- Infrastructure projectsSuggested
- Preserved editorial category/topic; broad candidate onlyminister.infrastructure.gov.au ↗
- Air transportSuggested
- Subject suggested from the title or summary: Airportminister.infrastructure.gov.au ↗
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- Australia · Place role: Coverage · Place type: Country or area · Location precision: RegionalEvidence
- Explicit preserved editorial country/region; no city or national centroid inferredminister.infrastructure.gov.au ↗