Travellers have revealed their confusion after arriving at Australia’s newest airport in western Sydney, with one stunned holiday-maker admitting: ‘I’m meant to be in Perth.’
Western Sydney International Airport welcomed its first overseas arrivals on Monday after decades of planning and construction.
But the landmark opening took an awkward turn when one man arriving from Auckland on an Air New Zealand flight admitted he had intended to travel to Western Australia.
‘I got confused, I saw Western Sydney,’ he told the ABC.
‘I thought it was Western Australia, and I’m meant to be in Perth, but look, it’s still pretty fun, so we’ll make the best of it.
‘I realised by the time I got on the flight that that’s not where it was going, but we’ll figure it out.
‘I’m on holiday, so it’s not the worst thing.’
The traveller was not the only passenger caught out by Sydney’s new airport.
The landmark opening took an awkward turn when one man admitted he had intended to travel to Perth
The man arrived arrived at Western Sydney International Airport from Auckland on an Air New Zealand flight
Julie Lundmark, who is originally from Sweden but had arrived on a Jetstar flight from Melbourne, told the ABC she was also caught off guard after landing in western Sydney.
‘We landed here and looked out of the window and had no idea where we were,’ she said.
‘And we looked down the map and we thought to ourselves, we are a little bit lost.
‘The funny thing is we googled because we didn’t recognise the name ‘west airport’ that was on the boarding pass, and we googled it and it took us to the normal Sydney airport.’
The hassle didn’t end there for Ms Lundmark.
‘We have our car parked at the other airport… We are stuck in Western Sydney,’ she said.
Buses and a free shuttle are operating between St Marys station and the airport until its metro link opens, but Ms Lundmark said it would have taken two hours to reach Sydney Airport and collect her car.
‘We’ve made some panic calls to the city and hopefully someone will pick us up,’ she said.
Not all was bad for the new airport, with some visitors praising the new $5.6billion terminal
‘Double check, everyone, on your tickets before.’
Not all was bad for the new airport, with some visitors praising the new $5.6billion terminal.
A total of seven airlines have signed up to operate services from Western Sydney International Airport.
Singapore Airlines is scheduled to begin daily services to Singapore on November 23, with flights to Nadi, Ho Chi Minh City and Doha set to follow at later dates.
