I think you are alluding to another missed opportunity by our planners. Why not have the new Sydney International Airport at Darling Harbour? They did it in the past, it'll be close to the CBD and would provide travellers with breath taking views of the city similar to Kai Tak.
Sydney certainly won't be the first major city in the World never mind Asia Pacific that features multiple airports serving the same city. London and its 5 (or is that 6) airports comes to mind, Toronto (2 airports), New York (3 airports), Chicago (2 airports), Dallas (2 airports) all come to mind. At the same time the distances between these airports are not insignificant either. For instance, a drive from Haneda airport to Narita airport is about 80 kms and takes about an hour if you respect the speed limit signs. Similarly the distance between Chicago's main airport of Orchard Field (ORD) and Midway (MDW) is about 40 kms which is roughly the same distance between Western Sydney and Mascot. Despite all of this, same day connections at many of these airports is possible. Indeed, I've done same day connections at Tokyo arriving at Haneda and departing out of Narita. Is it as convenient as having it all under one roof? No! Then again, I think those of us who have had to do domestic to international connections (or vice versa) won't find it much more of a hassle transferring to the other airport as it is transferring to a different terminal.
In fairness you cannot compare Japan and Australia here. Japan you've got options, you can grab a cab, you can take a single train, you can take a limousine bus. Having lived in Australia for a couple of years now, I have yet to encounter a single limousine bus in Australia. I'm lucky if the transfer T-bus shows up on time and isn't filled with belligerent passengers!
In fairness you cannot compare Japan and Australia here. Japan you've got options, you can grab a cab, you can take a single train, you can take a limousine bus. Having lived in Australia for a couple of years now, I have yet to encounter a single limousine bus in Australia. I'm lucky if the transfer T-bus shows up on time and isn't filled with belligerent passengers!
if they ran a bus from Glenfield station direct to WSI that might be the better option to connect to/from airport trains.
Upgradeable?
I mean there is some precedent there in that QF operates buses that connect the International and domestic terminals at Mascot. It's not far of a stretch to also serve the co-terminal of SYD at WSI.
OT, but I hope that’s tongue in cheek?
and an oversized concert hall that at least has new acoustics
You are right that ORD may be a bad example as there are few airlines that service both airports, although I will point out that Delta does service both (whether there are any sensible itineraries that can be constructed from such an arrangement remain to be seen).
Whether you have to have such co-terminal connections depends on a number of factors including scheduling and final destination. For instance one co-terminal might service certain less popular destinations whereas the other services popular destinations. Or it could be that when you arrive at the connection point the last flight to your final destination has flown out but there's another flight at the co-terminal with enough connection time. Of course price is a factor too for some travellers.
An argument could be made that a flight into LCY in the early morning hours would enable you to spend time in London proper with the ability to fly onwards out of LHR or LGW later that day.
WSI will be a boon for many airlines and PAX but that’s not to be confused with those of us who probably won’t use it.
