By Matt O’sullivan
Copyright theage
Sydney Airport will embark on its largest terminal expansion since the city hosted the Olympics 25 years ago by building up to 14 new gates for aircraft, in a bid to ready itself for competition from Western Sydney Airport late next year.
A draft master plan for Kingsford-Smith released on Monday also confirms changes to flight paths to make room for planes using the curfew-free Western Sydney Airport from late 2026.
The flight paths most affected will be those used by aircraft taking off to the north from Sydney Airport’s main north-south runway before arcing towards the north-west over inner-west suburbs such as Summer Hill, Ashfield and Croydon. The other change is to aircraft heading west from the east-west runway.
In a shot across the bow of its fledging rival, Sydney Airport’s expansion will boost passenger capacity by merging the T2 and T3 terminals into a single precinct, resulting in 12 new gates for both domestic and international aircraft. An extra two gates will also be built at the T1 international terminal’s pier B.
