How long does it take you to get through Sydney international airport?

In cases of both departing from and arriving at SYD T1, how long does it take you to get through and what's your best time? For departing flights this would be from check-in counter to immigration and security and to the lounge, for arriving flights it would be from stepping off the plane to getting into the public area of the terminal.

One tip is even if you have an express path card, sometimes the queue for the express path security checkpoint can be longer than the regular checkpoints, if for instance only one express path checkpoint is open. A few times I have veered right to the main checkpoints instead of left to the express path checkpoints and gotten through much faster. Not that a few minutes makes a big difference but it's certainly less frustrating to be on the move than standing in line.

QFP1 is on the money with observations of peak and off-peak times for flying out of Sydney T1. The difference between 6am and 7am can be staggering! Oh, and forget about trying to get a TRS rebate in those morning peaks too!

Avoiding the morning rush is the best bet. I like the evening flights to Europe / Asia, as while it is a little busy, the flow of passengers works. Arriving - well my passport has not worked on the E Passport machines for over a year now (it still has 8 years to go), and lining up with the inbound passengers for customs is a real killer. I came in on Malaysia the other night, and the Air Asia flight was just before us, and it was a total mess at the inbound customs desk.

1-2 hours is plenty

"I am told that they do also have profiling, some say no such thing, but I am told that Smartgate can give messages to the IPC person" - that's correct. When you retrieve your SmartGate ticket from the barrier, the machine will have printed a letter onto the ticket (usually in the top corner), and that letter is a way of telling the person at the end whether you're clear to exit or have been flagged for a certain type of check or questioning (barring any random selection, etc). Of course, the meaning of the letters is highly confidential / classified, and they regularly change in any case, so there's little reason to even notice them.

Back to the topic, flying out of Sydney International the other week and seeing the queues of people everywhere made me appreciate that Brisbane Airport is normally my departure point! It would have only taken about 20 minutes from entering the terminal to being through the formalities thanks to priority check-in and Express Path, but looking at the lines everywhere else, non-priority passengers would have been waiting much longer.

(Compare that to my record of six minutes from car to Qantas international lounge in Brisbane - without even reaching for an Express card - and you'll see what I mean!)

Chris - Re my issue with my passport, going through the outbound process the machine will accept my passport, but the officer will walk over to the gate and escort me over to the desk for manual processing. On the inbound, I will always get the " We cannot process your passport today" message at the Kiosk. No one at either the passport office or customs can tell me what is wrong, as my passport works fine in other locations with automatic gate. I know this is off topic, but it is very frustrating especially at peak times coming back into Sydney.....

Plus 45 mins to get the last 500mtrs by road to the terminal.

MEL and SYD also have a high proportion of flights, esp to Asian destinations.

I found on average 30-45 minutes tops both ways. Even in the early morning rush with the incoming Europe/Asia flights I found it looks worse than it is, same with Customs. I do fly at the pointy end of the plane. Departing with the Express pass is a mixed bag. Sometimes it leads you straight to the general queue but you do get access to the Express scanning lane. Last trip the agent asked an Asian couple in front of me if they had any liquids, no they responded. The agent then pulled a 750ml bottle of Penfolds 389 out, that was confiscated. Anymore? The man pulled out a 750ml bottle of Penfolds port. The woman then pulled out her mobile and took photos of the confiscated wine. Of course the agent had her delete the pics. I found it very entertaining, the person behind me did not. I offered to help drink the wine on the spot with them but the offer got lost in translation. This added time. Could the processes be better? Absolutely. But I've been through worse.

You can clear customs and immigration for departing flights ex-SYD within 15 minutes, even on peak times such as Christmas and Easter.