Well SYD could be expanded HKG style to have another runway floating in Botany Bay or second Sydney airport could have actually be built in Sydney.
It would cost significantly more and not solve any of the commercial freight problems. On a serious note, where do you honestly think within Sydney there exists the space for another airport besides this place that the government has earmarked for the past 40 years.
I actually think it would be quicker to get to Newcastle on train than WSI from Central, as the central coast & hunter trains are generally express. Newcstle as the choice would also have other benefits as at least its gateway to the Hunter (a tourist attraction), nothing for international guests to do near WSI.
I take it you haven't caught a train to Newcastle? Its 3h unless by some miracle the HSR is built. And that's assuming nothing goes wrong which it can (not as bad as the Southern line though). Your average train will take about 45mins to reach St Marys then you swap onto the metro. It will not take more than 25-30mins from St Marys even factoring wait times.
You're looking at a journey of around 1.5hr which mind you is not that crazy if you look around the world at big city airports to downtown.
Parramatta is in its transformative phase and distance wise it'll be similar. SW Sydney is also the logistics heartbeat of not just Sydney but the whole of Australia and lots of people are living in this corner. Heck Taylor Swift went to Sydney Zoo .. TWICE (that's in Blacktown for the record).
Also as a tourist, you fly into NRT, CDG, ICN, TPE, JFK all the time. Those are all 1-1.5hr from the "city". We just have had it lucky SYD is that close to the CBD.
Well at 3am I can be at SYD in Uber/Taxi 12 minutes (no traffic) and $25. Where as at 3am there is no PT available to WSI (and Uber would be over $200 negating any savings in airfare).
I think we've well established that WSI is not near you nor for you. I can equally say the same for my friend if they want to get to SYD at 3am, that's a $150+ uber ride for them from the Blacktown area.
There will be lots of people out in that neighbourhood both western and SW that WSI is closer for.
NSW trains/metro dont run 24 hours a day. Given the request is to be at airport 2 hours (3 hours if destination is the USA) before an international flight; even for a flight departing at 7am from WSI there is no way to PT from city of Sydney to WSI (trains dont start until 5am).
I'd be very surprised if any local is departing from City of Sydney and going to WSI unless for very specific reasons. As for tourists, its one of those learning curves, vut then again I laughed at my brother for booking a 7am flight from NRT when he asked me if there was PT options and told him to shuffle himself to an airport hotel the night before.
WSI may work for freight, but it is never going to be the main gateway for tourists or business travellers into NSW.
And it's not being touted right now as the replacement for SYD. It exists to
1) shift freight to allow expansion of a highly needed capacity increase in freight delivered right next to the logistics hub of this country. SYD and Botany Bay has very limited capacity to increase logistics and warehousing space as it is.
2) As a secondary alternative in both weather events as well as late night departures/arrivals.
3) to serve the community of one of Australia's fastest growing population sectors.
Have you wondered where a lot of all those immigrants that we're having record numbers go (besides the mega rich that can afford multi-million houses outright in inner Sydney)?
2) Edit: I definitely would rather land at WSI if SYD is closed than rerouted to CBR or NTL even though I live in the lower north shore. It's a distance that a relative is "willing to drive" even if they'll grumble. Newcastle or Canberra? I'm on my own. Also I just checked for fun, its about the same distance from WSI to my place as it is from MEL to my partners parents as they live in Glen Waverley.
