Singapore Airlines to fly from new Western Sydney Airport

Singapore Airlines will be the first international carrier to fly into the new Western Sydney Airport when it opens in late 2026.

Singapore Airlines already runs five daily flights between Sydney Airport and Singapore, but aims to capitalise on the 24-hour operation of Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport – which will carry the airport code WSI – compared to the 11pm-6am curfew period of Sydney Kingsford-Smith.

“This inaugural international airline arrangement is a fantastic milestone for Western Sydney International Airport and reflects the positive response we’ve had from airlines, especially in regard to the unprecedented opportunities our 24-hour capability unlocks,” said airport CEO Simon Hickey.

“WSI’s late-night departure capacity will allow SIA business travellers for instance to finish a full day’s work in Sydney, take an overnight flight and arrive in Singapore before their first morning meeting.”

That said, if Singapore Airlines has say an 11pm departure from Western Sydney, this would see the flight reaching Changi around 4am – so passengers would really want to book their hotel accommodation from the night before, rather than roll the dice on being granted a very early check-in.

Western Sydney airport will open in late 2026.

Singapore Airlines Regional Vice President South West Pacific, Louis Arul, said the decision “reflects our commitment to enhancing network connectivity for travellers to and from Sydney, and providing additional services for Australia, which is a major market for the Singapore Airlines Group.”

“This is a unique opportunity to work with a greenfield airport to set a new baseline for customer experience throughout an airport ecosystem (and) ensure that our customers will continue to enjoy the comprehensive, end-to-end, world-class experience that is synonymous with Singapore Airlines.”

While the airport’s runway can accommodate aircraft as big as the Airbus A380, Singapore Airlines is likely to fly its mid-sized Airbus A350 between Western Sydney and Singapore; there’s also a chance that SQ’s low-cost sibling Scoot could slot in for more budget-minded flyers.

More airlines to follow...

WSI’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 fits well into their morning 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, may also find its way onto the tarmac at WSI.

Speaking at a press conference held on the airport’s runway on Wednesday morning, federal Transport Minister Catherine King added “we’d welcome them here at WSI... Vietnam Airlines, we think in terms of the market here, would be a very good airline as well.”

Hickey has been busily 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,” airport CEO Simon 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.”

Unlike its eastern competitor, Western Sydney International Airport will have no curfew.

Qantas and Jetstar have already committed to domestic flights from the airport to Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, with an initial fleet or 15 single-aisle jets to be based at Western Sydney – ten from Jetstar and five from Qantas.

Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson has previously describing the nimbly efficient Airbus A220 jet as as “a perfect aircraft for Western Sydney.”

“The 220 will be a great vehicle to start up Qantas operations” at Western Sydney, Hudson told Executive Traveller earlier this year at the A220’s launch, tipping “I expect you will see triangle operations” from Western Sydney to Melbourne and Brisbane.

It’s expected those 15 Qantas and Jetstar aircraft will carry around four million passengers on more than 25,000 flights within the first year – and it’s hard to imagine Virgin Australia won’t also end up on the departures board at Western Sydney.

Inside Terminal 1 at Western Sydney Airport.

Other benefits of the clean-sheet airport will be technology that allows aircraft to be turned around quickly, and a next-generation baggage system.

Speaking with Melbourne radio station 3AW yesterday after the release of the government’s Aviation White Paper – which among other things seeks to encourage competition in Australia’s skies – Transport Minister Catherine King said “I think there is tension between airports, which in and of themselves are a monopoly. You don’t have a choice as an airline, you can only fly to that one place.”

“That’s why bringing on Western Sydney International Airport in Sydney will really be a game changer for the busiest part of our network, and that will change things as well.”

Inside Terminal 1 at Western Sydney Airport.

Former Qantas chief Alan Joyce has indicated Qantas could also fly overseas from Western Sydney, likely to medium-range destinations in Asia.

“We have a very big desire to operate both international and freight services from this airport,” he stated in mid-2023. “We just have to get more commercial terms that are sensible. Once we get there, we’re going to be very happy to make that commitment.”

“Our data shows that more than two million trips per year are taken by people who live in the Western Sydney catchment, so we know there will be demand for these flights from day one.” 

Western Sydney Airport will have an initial capacity to handle 10 million passengers per year with a single terminal and runway, Hickey says, “but we have a roadmap to grow to 82 million passengers annually over the decades ahead” with the facility for “four terminals in a mirror configuration with two runways.”