Sydney's new second airport, Western Sydney International, is due to handle its first commercial passenger flight on Sunday, The Guardian reports, in a piece comparing it with Melbourne's long-established secondary airport at Avalon.
Both sit about 60km from their city centres and both had Jetstar operate their first flight. Avalon, a former military airfield, has never grown into a major alternative to Tullamarine; it handles roughly 55 to 60 commercial flights a week and only one international route, to Bali.
Western Sydney opens with seven airlines signed up. The federal transport minister has said it will serve up to 10 million passengers a year at first, and the airport aims for as many as 80 million a year by 2060. Officials at both airports told the paper the two are not directly comparable.
Source: The Guardian
