Qantas, Jetstar flights from Western Sydney Airport

Qantas and Jetstar will be the first airlines listed on the domestic departures board at the new Western Sydney International Airport (WSI), while Singapore Airlines will take honours for the first international flights.

Western Sydney Airport CEO Simon Hickey has confirmed the airport will begin passenger flights at the end of October, although airlines have yet to reveal their own starting dates – and, in the case of Qantas and Jetstar, where they’ll fly to.

That detail could come as early as next Thursday, February 26, when the Qantas Group releases its results for the first half of the 2026 financial year.

Qantas and Jetstar will both fly to Western Sydney International Airport.

That presentation is usually accompanied by several pieces of passenger-facing good news – and the launch of Qantas and Jetstar flights from the $5.3 billion airport will certainly be welcomed by the three million people who live within one hour’s travel of the airport.

“This makes us the third largest catchment area in Australia,” Hickey has previously told Executive Traveller.

The cavernous WSI terminal is almost ready for passengers...

“You’ve got Sydney, then Melbourne, and then Western Sydney,” which he also cites as “the third largest economy in Australia... and one of the fastest-growing populations in Australia, a younger population with lots of businesses, a really ambitious population who are great travellers.”

Qantas’ plans for a lounge at WSI have also yet to be shared, although the most likely prospect would be a Qantas Club to welcome all loungeworthy travellers ahead of their flight on either Qantas or Jetstar.

You'd have to think that a Qantas Club lounge is also on the cards for WSI...

Qantas and Jetstar’s WSI routes

A Qantas spokesperson declined to comment on its plans for WSI, saying it remains “in active discussions with the airport regarding the number of passenger aircraft and routes we’ll initially have there.”

(The first Qantas plane will actually take off from WSI in the middle of the year, but this will be when the airport begins cargo flights, so the red-tailed jet will be carrying parcels instead of passengers.)

However, Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson has previously tipped “I expect you will see triangle operations” from Western Sydney to Melbourne and Brisbane.

Those would be a boon for residents of western Sydney, who could recover as much as two hours on a same-day trip – which means getting home in time for dinner with the family and to tuck the kids into bed.

However, travellers will be forced to rely on cars or buses until the delayed Western Sydney Airport metro train line opens in the second half of 2027.

The new WSI metro line won't open until the second half of 2027.

Jetstar could also add some low-cost leisure-focussed destinations such as the Gold Coast – the budget airline already has up to nine SYD-OOL flights per day, which indicates plenty of demand.

Qantas plans to have five jets based at Western Sydney, and has previously confirmed to Executive Traveller that this will initially be the nimble QantasLink Embraer E190 regional jets rather than the larger Boeing 737s which dominate its Sydney Airport flights.

It’s possible that the modern mid-sized Airbus A220 could follow, with Hudson previously describing the jet as “a perfect aircraft for Western Sydney.”

Qantas will launch WSI flights with its regional E190 jet.

The QantasLink E190s have between 94 and 97 seats, with up to ten seats in business class.

The A220 steps capacity up to 137 seats (10 in business and 127 in economy), which is around 25% fewer seats than the workhorse Boeing 737s.

Jetstar will field ten single-aisle jets from its Airbus A320 family.

Across those 15 jets, the Qantas Group expects to carry some four million passengers on some 25,000 flights per year to and from WSI.