Sydney Airport- A National Disgrace

[SYD]

I think its was because the existing 2 runways atthe time (1960s) crossing one another was one issue. effectively dividing the airport into 4 quadrants. That meant an expansion could only be in one of 2 places - NE or NW
They put it NW as there was more land there

I think the expansion of T3 to include a Int terminal for QF north of T3 has always been in the minds of QF.
Joyce has made such a proposal but the airport is not keen to entrench a dominant player.

Yet that model is common in most multi-terminal airports around the world and might work within the constraints of SYD.

 

[Quickstatus]

constraints of SYD

The constraints of SYD apart from space, also includes competing interests and who has to spend $$$
QF said they would spend $$$ but I suspect they want SYD to also stump up $$$

 

[Cossie]

I am curious how/why you were denied a ride on the T-bus? Seems wrong to me, we've always just hopped on with no questions asked.

Something to do with our boarding passes, I think because we had them they wanted us to use the Qantas bus.

 

[justinbrett]

Joyce has made such a proposal but the airport is not keen to entrench a dominant player.

I'm not sure that's the reason, it's good for business to entrench dominant tenants.

I think it was more they don't want to fragment the international business which makes them the most money (shops, duty free etc)

For the record I think it's still on the cards for T2/T3 to serve international flights - Qantas pushes for Sydney Airport mega-terminal.

 

[Quickstatus]

Qantas bus

Thats dumb.
I wonder whether its because QF pays for the QF transfer bus and does not let non QF passengers on, that the SYD funded TBus then does not let QF pax on.

 

[SYD]

I'm not sure that's the reason, it's good for business to entrench dominant tenants.

I think it was more they don't want to fragment the international business which makes them the most money (shops, duty free etc)

For the record I think it's still on the cards for T2/T3 to serve international flights - Qantas pushes for Sydney Airport mega-terminal.

Which would take some of the load off the Int-Dom transfer if QF and OW operated out of T2/3….

 

[Quickstatus]

Which would take some of the load off the Int-Dom transfer if QF and OW operated out of T2/3….

See page 102 (8.5 T2/3 Integrated Operations precinct) of the SYD airport 2039 masterplan
and here

It will need to happen under any forward looking scenario

 

[Warks]

Offish topic

Compare to NZ where your passport goes direct into the gate machine.
Not the Au system where your passport is scanned in the koisk, that gives you a card to put into the next gate machine. {Cards to landfill or reused?]
NZ is going towards to electronic arrival cards. Started a few days ago at CHC. Other airports over time.



The free airport operated T bus is the "transfer bus" running on the public roads landside.
QF operate their own free bus from T1<--->T3 airside
And the (expensive) NSW govt train, part of the metro train system

Yes cutting out the middleman at AKL is good although the token system works well enough here with the booths well in advance of the immigration gates being handy in reducing the bottleneck.
On the other hand, AKL absolutely sucks for customs. I was there a month or so back when about four international flights landed together and there were four queues for customs that went all the way back to the last baggage carousel. Took over an hour to clear it and that was by jumping to another line when a gap formed. The left most line moves a lot faster, LPT for you.
SYD can be a bit slow there but they have greater capacity I think.

 

[Rich]

without a complete transcript of what was said, it's hard to know how this was spun

That is why I am taking the OP at face value. Maybe they were given the wrong information, but given @Cossie 's experience of being denied the T-bus based on having a QF boarding pass, it doesn't sound like it.

IME the T-bus is heavily plugged throughout the terminal, the QF transfer facility is the thing that's hard to find (if you don't know where to look)

It doesn't matter if it is heavily plugged, if you are told your only other option is the train then that is what you are looking for. Likewise, if you are looking for the QF transfer bus that is what you find, with signs or by asking.

. The fact pax where being offered the option of waiting rather than outright closing the facility, suggests it was a short time.

Maybe. I can tell you my last experience at SYD international was terrible. The transfer facility was working fine but it still took 40 minutes to get to the front of the line. I would hate to think what the line would have looked like if the scanners hadn't been working for a little while. I'd probably look at other options I was presented with too.
All up for me, over 2 1/2 hours to get from the international flight to the domestic terminal. Immigration and customs wasn't the issue. It was baggage handling and transferring. It is very poor, however you look at it.

 

[sanne]

Arrived at SYD international after our flight from JNB, stayed at Rydges overnight. My husband had been quite unwell and had required wheelchair assistance after getting off the flight.

We came out of Rydges fully expecting to get on the T-bus as we’d done many times before to take us to the domestic. Was told by attendant at the T-bus stop that we couldn’t use it as we were flying Qantas, we’d have to use QF busses.

The queue for the QF busses was at least 100 meters, full of lots people and families with huge amounts of luggage. My husband no way could stand in that queue and I doubt we would have made our flight to BNE anyway.

So we ended up taking a taxi… $40! At least the queue was small and the attendant very helpful and friendly.

 

[Cossie]

The last time we got in early in the morning, there was 1 x-ray machine working, we were lucky in that we could use the express bag drop, but we still waited about 45 minutes to get to the x-ray machine. By this time the line was out into the undercover entrance coming from arrivals.

 

[Rich]

The last time we got in early in the morning, there was 1 x-ray machine working, we were lucky in that we could use the express bag drop, but we still waited about 45 minutes to get to the x-ray machine. By this time the line was out into the undercover entrance coming from arrivals.

Same for us. They opened the second lane when we got to the front after 40 minutes.
Then the bus driver wanted to scan each person's boarding pass, only to wander off part way through, allowing others to board without scanning. What the?

 

[VPS]

I just wished they kept the ramp in use for departure drop offs.

do you know why they did that? Was it because of security. You would have thought they would have thought about that before building the ramp

 

[drron]

We got into Sydney international late one night and stayed at Rydges. Next morning we tried to get the external free bus to domestic as the bag drop and security for a domestic transfer that uses the airside bus was it’s usual zoo like state.
We were not allowed on the free external bus.
So, we caught the train and paid. not happy, but what can you do.

We always got one of these when staying at Rydges but we haven't stayed post covid so who knows.


Anyway thanks for posting as I went to the Rydges website and there is a flash sale on so got another 10% off our next stay in September.

 

[dajop]

Shame there's no people mover. But knowing the cost of building infrastructure in Australia, that probably would cost $5b to build, or $10b if the government got involved.

 

[Forg]

Shame there's no people mover. But knowing the cost of building infrastructure in Australia, that probably would cost $5b to build, or $10b if the government got involved.

There is no $5b scenario, infrastructure is ALWAYS at least initiated by the government, although we now know (thanks PwC!) that the cost-overruns are all injected by the private sector (eg. by PwC).

Can we vote for the style of people mover? I want one of those pod thingies like the parking one at LHR! Except I want it to be much higher speed, we want passengers properly battered before they get out ... get Musky in to build a Hyperloop!! Hey maybe we could fire them across the runways using compressed air, it could be synchronised with ATC to ensure no aircraft was landing or taking off at the moment of firing ...

 

[jrfsp]

Shame there's no people mover. But knowing the cost of building infrastructure in Australia, that probably would cost $5b to build, or $10b if the government got involved.

There kinda is a people mover, being the rail link. They should just make it free for terminal transfer like LHR.

Im sure the cost saving of doing away with the T bus would pay for the free train transfers

 

[SeatBackForward]

There is no $5b scenario, infrastructure is ALWAYS at least initiated by the government

Not always, the Northconnex tunnel in Northern Sydney was purely initiated by Transurban - to bolster up their monopoly on Sydney Tollroads!

 

[Forg]

Not always, the Northconnex tunnel in Northern Sydney was purely initiated by Transurban - to bolster up their monopoly on Sydney Tollroads!

Ah, but did they initiate the project due to some consulting with PwC?!

 

[drron]

I think its was because the existing 2 runways atthe time (1960s) crossing one another was one issue. effectively dividing the airport into 4 quadrants. That meant an expansion could only be in one of 2 places - NE or NW
They put it NW as there was more land there

I think the expansion of T3 to include a Int terminal for QF north of T3 has always been in the minds of QF.
Joyce has made such a proposal but the airport is not keen to entrench a dominant player.

It is where it is as at the time of the building of the International terminal in the early 70s it was basically the only site available. The QF maintenance base was next to the Old International terminal where the QF domestic terminal is now. They could hardly demolish the old terminal before the new one was opened in May1970 and the QF maintenance base was essential as neither tullamarine or the new BNE airports then existed.
The main runway being lengthened into Botany bay was part of the whole project. My father was the Project director for the combined project for the Commonwealth Department of Works. and despite the fact that at least once a week he had to fly to Melbourne to help out with the building of Tullamarine the Sydney airport project was brought in on time and under budget unlike Tullamarine.