Newcastle Williamtown Airport encouraging human interaction over smart gates: EGM

Newcastle Williamtown Airport executive GM (EGM) Andrew Warrender, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Australia Pacific, stated (28-Jul-2026) "We don't have smart gates and we discouraged agency partners from putting them in because we wanted it to be a personal experience". Mr Warrender added: "We wanted passengers to be greeted by a human and we're small enough for that to be possible".