Western Sydney Airport, CEO, Simon Hickey at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Australia Pacific 2025

Transcript

Simon Hickey:So right ahead of us now, we've got a big period of testing. We actually need to test— we've put in place 70 different technology systems. We've got all of this infrastructure coming together. We've got lighting systems across the runway and the airport. We've got to test everything working together and make sure that it all works seamlessly so that when a passenger comes in, it's a great experience. So we're going to actually, you know, push the airport as hard as it can go, see where we can break it, and then actually all of our processes that we've got to put in place, and we've got to get people trained up in all of that. Now, in addition to all of that, we're still— we're working on bringing the food and beverage now to the airport because that comes just before you open. We're looking at the car parking operators, the car cleaning, opening all of our, all of the different areas across the airport. So there's plenty to go, but we've done all of the main work contracts, which means that the terminal's there, the runway's there, all the roadworks are there. We'll soon be opening the motorway, etc. So when you look at the growth markets for Australia, and for us, really, and you look at our catchment area, so 50% of our people in Western Sydney speak a different language other than English at home, and that means our visiting family and relatives markets are going to be really important to us. So when you look at our market, Southeast Asia through North Asia and the Middle East are really important markets, and they're going to connect really well. So we've announced Singapore Airlines, of course, and Singapore Airlines connects really well through the subcontinent, up through China, across Asia, and so that's a really great announcement. But you can expect that we will be looking in those markets and those areas particularly over the next little while. So we're Sydney's only 24/7 airport, and, and so Kingsford Smith Airport has a curfew and slot constraints. Now what that means is that cargo likes to come in late at night so they can get distributed through the day. We've got just up the road from us Australia Post's biggest sortation centre. We've got Amazon's biggest sortation centre in Southeast Asia. They're just— they actually overlook the airport, they're that close. So you can imagine that they'll want aircraft to come in through the night. And so that's a really important part of what we're putting together. We're building a big cargo precinct. We've announced multiple cargo terminal operators there, and so I think it'll be a pretty busy and growing precinct for the airport. As a brand new airport, we've been lucky to design our airport from the ground up in modern times, and so that means that people could experience a lot more technology use through this airport, a lot more common use. We've got a lot of swing gates, which means they can be international or domestic. We have a very fast minimum connection time between— so if you're traveling between 2 aircraft, then we'll be the fastest airport to deliver that on the east coast of Australia. They can experience a modern airport, and it's a beautiful airport. People are going to want to dwell there, and it's going to— lots of natural light, and that reduces stress. Travel is actually quite a stressful Exercise for many passengers, but natural light and lots of air helps to reduce that stress. So we've looked at all elements so that we're an inviting airport for people of all abilities, and you can easily make your way through a stress-free experience at our airport. Thank you.

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