New international airline for Western Sydney Airport

Western Sydney International Airport (WSI) is adding another name to its departure board, with Air New Zealand signing up for flights to Auckland.

The WSI-AKL flights will begin in mid-2027, some six months after the airport itself opens at the end of 2026.

The route will be part-funded by the NSW state government's $16 million Take-Off Fund.

“This new connection between Auckland and Western Sydney will open up a pathway between two of the fastest growing regions on either side of the Tasman,” said Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran.

“For customers, it’s about getting them to where they want to go more conveniently. For us, it’s another step in strengthening the ties between New Zealand and Australia.”

Air New Zealand joins Singapore Airlines as WSI's second overseas airline, while Qantas and Jetstar have already signed on for domestic routes.

As previously reported, those Qantas flights will begin with the QantasLink Embraer E190 regional jet, although there is the possibility that the mid-sized Airbus A220 could follow.

Qantas has previously stated that five red-tailed jets would be based at Western Sydney, while Jetstar would field ten single-aisle jets from its Airbus A320 family.

Inside the new terminal for Western Sydney, which will also be known as Nancy-Bird Walton after the pioneering Australian aviatrix.

With those 15 jets, Qantas expects to carry some four million passengers across some 25,000 flights per year.

Although initial routes are yet to be revealed, flights to Melbourne and Brisbane 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.

Airport CEO Simon Hickey has been busy courting international airlines to bulk up the departure board at WSI, which lies 44km  west of the Sydney CBD and 41km west of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, but boasts a catchment area of some three million people who live within one hour’s travel of the airport.

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

“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.”

Vietnam Airlines, Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific have also been tipped as early starters for WSI, catering for the demographics of the airport’s broad catchment area.

Western Sydney International will initially be able to handle up to 10 million passengers per year.

The airport’s curfew-free status could also have strong appeal to Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Qatar Airways, which often find a very late-night or early morning departure slots well into the first wave of connections from their Middle Eastern hubs onto Europe and the UK.

Turkish Airlines, which will be permitted to run a total of 35 flights per week between Australia and Istanbul by late 2025, could also find its way onto the WSI tarmac.

Hickey said the airport has received a positive response from airlines, “especially in regard to the unprecedented opportunities our 24-hour capability unlocks.”

However, the fact that WSI shares the same ‘capital city’ airport designation at SYD, rather than being rated as a secondary airport, will hamper some international airlines in expand their footprint from Sydney to the west, due to restrictions on how many flights airlines can bring to the city.