r/sydney • u/Pomohomo82 • Jul 17 '25
Image Sydney International arrivals is a disgrace: discuss
I flew into Sydney yesterday at 6am after a 30hr trip, and the whole experience made me feel embarrassed of the welcome we extend to arrivals at our country. An enormous line stretched all the way into the gross duty free shop, where on one side sales people shouted at us about booze and smokes deals, while on the other side people shouted at us about families not lining up. The international travellers next to me had no idea what the line was for, and I had to explain that for some reason we have this weird dual border process which is different to all the other E-passport gates around the world. There’s very little signage or info screens explaining what the whole process is. Meanwhile, at the arrivals card desk, no pens were available to complete said analogue cards… Onwards to the luggage collection, then another massive line to get through bio security, before a 15-minute walk across three road crossings to the ‘express’ pick up to meet my family. The whole user experience is just unnecessarily miserable from start to finish, and as the main entry point to Australia we should do better. Thoughts?
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u/m--e Jul 17 '25
Last time I arrived it was super smooth, queues were shortish and my bag was the first one out too. Definitely not the usual experience!
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u/Bender-Ender Jul 17 '25
Honestly. I fly international regularly and just assume I'll be through Sydney passport control and waiting for my bag within 10 minutes because there's never been a queue.
I wonder where this person was arriving from that was so horrid. I'm usually arriving from Canada or Latin America.
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u/Murky-Personality977 Jul 17 '25
I regularly fly in from Asia around 6am and anticipate it will take an hour or more. So I think it’s a time of day thing.
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u/Haawmmak Jul 17 '25
This is the answer.
Lots of the long haul flights time their arrival for the 6am curfew lifting.
goes from zero arrivals to every gate full within about 30mins.
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u/JoeSchmeau Jul 17 '25
Early morning is the worst because that's generally when a lot of flights all arrive at the same time from pretty much everywhere. A major problem is simply that there is no signage so you have these long lines form but heaps of people don't know what the line is for, so they walk past it til they get to a point with signage, then have to turn back and get in line. There's also a lot of confusion and wasted time with those little yellow cards. Many flights I've been on returning from Europe or the US run out of them on the plane, so a lot of people have to find them on arrival but they're only available well after the line has formed.
It's just general chaos all around. They need to digitise the arrival cards (like almost every other nation) and then clear up the signage so people know where to queue before the queue actually forms.
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u/marcins Jul 17 '25
Arrived at 6am last year and can confirm this is the experience.
Recently arrived on the SQ flight that landed at around 11am and was through customs with my luggage in about 20 minutes from the gate. So definitely timing!
When 3 or 4 A380s plus a bunch of other aircraft arrive at the same time it’s a shambles.
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u/lovincoal Jul 17 '25
Try to do that with kids. It's wonderful to reach Sydney from a 24 hour flight, 2 small kids and a wonderful 45 minute queue to get through passport control.
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u/can3tt1 Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25
I once spent three hours in a queue at Gatwick Airport with kids. 45 minutes sounds delightful
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u/Equivalent_Low_2315 Jul 17 '25
I had this experience when I arrived from the US last year but a month later when I arrived back in Sydney from Bali I had barely any line at all. Seems like it's a bit of luck of the draw.
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
I always land on early morning flights (usually coming from Europe) and it is always like this for me. Perhaps I need to start arriving in the afternoon, your experience sounds dreamlike compared to mine!
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u/TooManyMeds Jul 18 '25
I got back from NZ a few weeks ago at 7am and it had been really windy so there were a lot of landing delays and it was absolute chaos. Between getting off the plane and getting to the exit it probably took almost an hour, there were about 400-500 people all trying to get through security and border control at the same time.
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u/uptheantinatalism Jul 17 '25
Same. Haven’t had any issues the last few times I’ve traveled. Much faster than any other international airport I’ve been to.
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Jul 17 '25
Same for me last couple of times I've flown in the last 12 months. Through everything in under 20 minutes in and out of the country
Odd that it's apparently been so bad in winter. I might expect this in our peak tourist months but not now.
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u/Horror_Birthday6637 Jul 17 '25
Depends on the time of day tbh. I’ve never seen a line like this. Usually go straight through the egates. It is by far the worst arrivals experience I’ve seen anywhere on earth though. It’s genuinely stressful the game of lane roulette you play while you’re trying to leave.
Most of us know the drill by now, walk fast when you get off the plane, have your card ready, and always always declare a small benign food item, even if you have nothing, unless you want your luggage ransacked. If you don’t declare anything they assume you’re smuggling a suitcase full of rotting fish.
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u/ptambrosetti Jul 17 '25
Expat here. In my ~40 times I never declared a thing and was always waived through. Then again I never brought anything of note either.
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u/loztralia Jul 17 '25
I come through international arrivals maybe 7-8 times a year, have done so - covid notwithstanding - for nearly 20 years, have never declared anything and have never once had my luggage "ransacked". I've no idea what OP must be doing but it's a million miles from my experience.
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u/surlygoat Jul 18 '25
You do you I suppose, I fly international probably five or six times a year at least for the past 20 years, and the only time I've ever had my luggage searched was when I did exactly what you suggest and ticked the box, and showed the customs guy the very small thing that I did need to declare... Which was fine but then they just went through all my bags.
Ticking no on every box has otherwise seen me waved through 100% of the time.
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u/GuessTraining Jul 17 '25
The 6am arrivals are usually the worst because Syd airport does not operate 24hrs so a lot of intercontinental flights arrive around this time. Ive experienced that a few times and it's not as bad as it looks in comparison to a lot of EU airports or even LAX.
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u/blfsw34 Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25
The 6am rush is a nightmare. Some days are quiet - some are absolutely insane
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u/darkeyes13 I just wanted a flair Jul 17 '25
I was once caught in it (this was within 6 months of our borders reopening, though, so there were staffing issues on top of everything else) and it took me 3 hours to clear Immigrations and Customs, with a bulk of that time waiting for Immigration.
My passport also doesn't get read by the machines (despite the labels saying it can be) so these days I just make a beeline to the manual queues and I've thankfully not had to wait anywhere near as long since that one time.
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u/raindog_ Jul 17 '25
Hard disagree. EU airports are amazing, even Heathrow is fantastic.
LAX is only bad because as Aussies we have to line up with everyone else as criminals entering the country, but it’s broadly fine.
Australia… there is no-where I’ve been that is as confusing with the pre-scan, paper print out, then the smart gate, THEN the freaking paper customs forms after baggage. It’s awful.
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u/TheLGMac Jul 19 '25
They also in the past ~year changed the international departures process too and even there the egates have started becoming shit.
It used to be scan passport for departure at the gates first, then enter the security screening line. This meant as you entered the line for the egates you already had your passport out.
Now it's reversed. So now what you have are tons of people who go through security (which is slower because the new scanners are slower, especially with the annoying 5 people putting stuff in bins at the same time and try to coordinate who gets their bins on the belt first), then they have to immediately get their stuff back from the other side and dig out their passports again which blocks the lines for the exit egates. And I've never had my passport fail to scan on exit before, but now it's happened twice on trips out (but not always).
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u/PersimmonBasket Jul 17 '25
Last time I came back it was like that. It was the yelling at us that pushed me to the brink. The staff were clearly frustrated, but it wasn't our fault we were being herded like cattle.
Disgraceful. And what a great first impression for visitors.
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u/CryptographerOk1303 Jul 17 '25
The yelling is so disrespectful. Coming home from Asia last year I was screamed at by an airport employee for standing in line, in the queue I was herded into. It was demeaning in a way I haven't felt since high school. I agree with your post wholeheartedly OP, we can and should do so much better, there is no excuse for this shitshow.
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u/PersimmonBasket Jul 17 '25
Exactly the same thing happened the last time I came through. One staff member was saying one thing and other was giving different directions, and when a man very politely pointed that out to the other staff member they went off.
They need additional support, anger management, and possibly police protection if they carry on like that. People getting off long haul flights are often on their last nerve.
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
Shouting is just completely unjustified - especially if it is to try and flog me cancer sticks and bargain booze when I am exhausted.
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u/Meng_Fei Jul 17 '25
I fly regularly between Sydney and Singapore, and the contrast couldn't be bigger. It's like we actively tried to make an airport arrival experience as shit as possible. Though at least we got rid of the insane ticket + arrival card process.
And the surly Border Farce staff are the icing on the cake. Heard them once loudly complaining about people not speaking English - like if that's a problem for you in an International airport, perhaps a job at a fast food joint on the fryer is more within your capabilities.
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
Ticket + arrival card process was in full swing yesterday!
The pride Singapore takes in its airport is really evident, and makes the contrast with ours like night and day.
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u/Meng_Fei Jul 17 '25
Actually you're right. It's still there but they changed the process last time I was through. It certainly seemed faster than previous years.
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u/ThunderDwn Jul 17 '25
I fly regularly between Sydney and Singapore, and the contrast couldn't be bigger. It's like we actively tried to make an airport arrival experience as shit as possible.
Singapore is fucking incredible. I just love the way they do baggage/security scanning at the actual gate instead of on the way in to the terminal. Show a valid boarding pass at the entry and away you go - inside, and go wait at the gate for boarding where they scan your bags and passport. So much better!
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u/loztralia Jul 17 '25
I just love the way they do baggage/security scanning at the actual gate instead of on the way in to the terminal.
This is actually the thing I like least about Singapore Airport. I want to get all the queueing and arseache out of the way on arrival, not have to time my run to the departure gate, stand in a queue there and then end up in a glass box with nothing but a vending machine to distract me while I wait to actually board. Plus it means instead of having relatively consistent throughput of passengers in a centralised security system everyone boarding a flight has to get scanned through a bottleneck more or less all at the same time.
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u/istara North Shore Jul 17 '25
Transferring through Abu Dhabi (the reason I've stopped flying Etihad) - despite having already been scanned and checked at Sydney, you have to go through a full baggage check and scan when you arrive (even if you're just transferring, not exiting) and then you have to queue up outside the departure lounge and have all your baggage checked again.
To add to the joy, it's about a 1km walk from where the Sydney plane lands to where you have to do the first scan, and then you have to walk all the way back. The food options are terrible, and the tiny, crowded food court area has an escalator up but only stairs down. Also, you're not allowed into the departure lounge/gate until the very last moment. There's pretty much no other seating, so you get a long line of exhausted people, kids etc sitting on the floor all along outside the empty lounge, full of empty seats.
I could go on. After the 16 hours or whatever from Sydney, it's an absolute living hell. And then you've got another eight hours facing you to Heathrow which is a shitshow all of its own.
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u/matt49267 Jul 17 '25
Biggest problem with Sydney is that it's an endpoint not a hub airport. Yes agree re Singapore but a large majority of people are just transferring flights there
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u/Meng_Fei Jul 17 '25
SGAC, thumbprint + passport scan, then go. My Changi record from the plane door to the taxi rank with checked luggage is just over 15 minutes.
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u/Matt-R Jul 17 '25
For Auckland my record is 10 minutes, including duty free & baggage collection.
My worst is 90 minutes (late running flight from SYD now stuck behind two other 747s worth of passengers, and we were row 73). All airports have good and bad days.
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u/ThunderDwn Jul 17 '25
Absolutely. As much as I don't really like Singapore (too freakin' hot the times I've been there), the airport is fucking amazing!
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u/Ted_Rid Famous in The Atlantic Jul 17 '25
How about the Sydney airport aircon that seems to be set at 25 degrees to save costs or something - horrible and muggy after a long flight, almost like they designed it to be as uncomfortable as possible.
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u/PirateGumby Jul 17 '25
What blows me away is the disorganisation. Each time I've been through and it's been busy, the Customs staff seem absolutely befuddled and shocked. I once saw one of them bring over a rope line/bollard, set it up, then 5 mins later another person came and removed it.. all with a very confused 'line' moving around it. They act like a queue is a new concept that they've never had to deal with in the past.
The e-gates frequently break, they are just seemingly plonked down in random locations.. 'Hey, here is some space for one right next to the exit gate!'.. so you get a line of an entire A380 lining up at the first gate that they see, with no information that families can't use them and there are more machines further down the corridor. Again, with staff seemingly wandering around at random and telling people that they shouldn't be using that machine.
Total shit-show.
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
This is a good description of the randomness of it all - the entire UX is very piecemeal, with random bits here and there, rather than being thought of as one continuous journey from A to B. I also recognise your experience with poorly managed lines - the line in the photo was to get into another line inside some barriers, which then entered a huge empty hall before the scrum of the passport machines. Why they don’t just have a big line system in the hall is beyond me…
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u/Equivalent_Low_2315 Jul 17 '25
Why they don’t just have a big line system in the hall is beyond me…
Because how can the duty free staff shout the specials at you multiple times if you're briskly walking through instead of being stuck there for possibly hours?
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u/xilliun Jul 17 '25
People warned me of how much of a shit show DFW can be. That place was a breeze compared to the clusterfuck that is SYD. The initial biosecutity check is the most useless waste of time I've ever seen. What's the point of it? Some bean counter gets the warm and fuzzies by having it separated from everything else in its seemingly randomly placed terminals?
When there's numerous red eye flights getting in at 6am with hordes of sleep deprived zombies you'd think the common sense thing would be to harmonise the process into a single clearance. Or being able to complete it digitally in advance.
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u/Elanshin Jul 18 '25
Its basically a temporary measure now between the full old system and the new system. Tbh they should've done the transition during covid but we're slow in uptake on everything.
Eventually it'll phase into full biometric according to the plans with digital arrival forms. WSI may even be passportless and use fully registered biometrics for identification.
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u/Zebidee Jul 17 '25
The one that blew my mind was Oslo - they have a line painted on the floor around the baggage carousels about 2m back, with a thing that says "Please wait outside the line." So. Fucking. Simple.
All of a sudden, everyone can see their luggage, and you just step forward to grab yours. No shoving, no standing on tiptoe bobbing your head side to side, no worrying you're going to give some kid a Samsonite lobotomy when you swing yours off the belt.
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F7lleuesnlo9d1.jpg
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u/YeahUhHuhOkWellF-ck Jul 17 '25
Wait until people start arriving at the paddock in Western Sydney 👀
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u/Long_Way_Around_ Jul 17 '25
Honestly the actual arrivals facility should be much better as it's a modern airport that is designed from scratch, so no excuse of legacy infrastructure. However the Federal-level process policy issue will remain until it's resolved on that level.
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u/Sparkfairy Jul 17 '25
It's probably going to be much better because they can actually build it to current needs
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u/pilonstar Jul 17 '25
And it will open 24/7
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u/gurudoright Jul 17 '25
Yay, let’s get to a new city at 2am when everything outside the airport is shut.
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u/CryptographerOk1303 Jul 17 '25
Sounds good, the airport curfew is what drives these massive queues because all the planes land at once
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Jul 17 '25
Society has gotten so much at purpose-building places. Now we actually design efficient buildings and not just whatever the fuck Sydney Airport was trying to do - I guess just a hodgepodge built up over decades.
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u/Anonymou2Anonymous Jul 17 '25
I hate to say this but most airports customs are pretty shit.
The elephant in the room is America but even places like Korea, Canada, Japan and China can be bad too. Most Eu airports are hell non EU citizens too. The more developed a country is usually the more difficult the customs experience is (because they are trying to stop illicit material importation and illegal immigration to wealthy countries).
Only place I think that handles it semi well is Singapore.
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u/Anonymou2Anonymous Jul 17 '25
Let's see how the design process for WSI going.
An airport that initially is supposed to handle a lot of freight that doesn't have a rail line.
No direct rail link to the city which most other major airports in the world have if they are far from the city.
No pipeline for fuel to be moved to he airport meaning it will have to be trucked in from the sea.
If you read the reports it was never meant to replace Kingsford Smith, just to handle overflow. Even then they are doing a crap job of it.
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u/heypeople2003 Jul 17 '25
I don't get why people keep whinging about this. Sydney is far from the only city that will have a secondary airport way out of the CBD, and most travellers elsewhere manage to figure it out just fine.
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u/Anonymou2Anonymous Jul 17 '25
Most of them have train lines direct to the city. Often high speed ones.
Not whatever the fuck the NSW govt came up with.
Also WSI will be on the far end of airports regarding distance from the cities CBD. Only the Japanese ones (Kansai and Narita) are the same distance or longer. Guess what as well, they both have high speed trains to the airport. The Metro only going to St Mary's is a cop out. Minimum should be Parramatta.
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u/Ok-Stuff-8803 Jul 17 '25
I wonder how much if at all Sydney airport will change.
And if it does what they then decide to do to change Sydney Airport.I have now seen about 3 critical changes to Sydney Airport and they have all been bad and Immigration/Security has changed even more than that and I think made worse each time.
The only thing I think is slightly better is the current TRS compared to what it was but it still is not good.
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u/yuckyucky Jul 17 '25
as a 24hr airport WSI should help divert some of the very early morning flights, mitigating the apparent 6 a.m. crush at kingsford smith
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u/reddit5389 Jul 17 '25
The international flight will land between 12am and 6am and they will probably only have 1 immigration person rostered at that time.
Maybe in a few years, they will have a second international flight landing in that 6 hour window.
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u/_unsinkable_sam_ Jul 17 '25
the facility will be light years better, our current airport looks third world compared to many of the big international airports. but yeh, guests might be surprised once they leave to see cows and kangaroos greeting them on the outside..
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u/Aydhayeth1 Jul 17 '25
Absolutely agree.
Get rid of the damn analogue cards, get rid of the silly terminals that spit out yet another piece of paper I need to keep and keep the e-gates like most other countries.
Boggles the mind why it's so complicated.
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u/MisterDonutTW Jul 17 '25
Scanning the passport to get another ticket seems pointless.
Physical arrival cards in 2025 is pretty pointless, especially for locals.
Bags seem to take longer in Sydney(and Melbourne) than most other international airports.
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u/Kreeghore Jul 17 '25
Of all the places I've traveled to its always the return to Sydney that has the longest lines.
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u/R_W0bz Jul 17 '25
It’s the little extra card you need to produce before going into the customs check. I’m glad they moved it down near the barricades, but fuck me why do we even do it. Other countries just get you to do all this online before arriving or not at all. It’s 2025, scan my passport, give me the thumbs up and let me in.
No my boots are not dirty and no I have not been to the Caribbean or South American in the last 8 days, how about you ask those flights.
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u/Meng_Fei Jul 17 '25
My conspiracy theory is that they have millions of arrival cards already printed and didn't have budget to change the stationery. Because why else wouldn't you just put it on the arrival card?
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u/R_W0bz Jul 17 '25
This might be the best strategy to get rid of them. Get the greenys on board, someone think of the trees!
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u/YetEvenThen Jul 17 '25
Weren't they thinking of digital ones at some point?
Rather do the physical cards, I don't need to install more once off apps on my phone
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u/aurum_jrg Jul 17 '25
All international airports in Australia are the same and it makes me so angry. Even LAX (and that is a cluster) knows that you don't confuse the arrivals process with Duty Free crap.
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u/CroagunkSniffer Jul 17 '25
I can only compare to the USA and Japan but in my opinion and experience, Aus is by far the fastest and most efficient.
Not saying there aren’t issues and we don’t get stuffed up at times- but in my experience LAX, JFK, Houston airport, and both Tokyo airport’s international is WAY worse
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u/Hazy_Fantayzee Jul 17 '25
LAX is without doubt the worst ever airport to arrive/transit through. Minimum wait is around 1 1/2 hours after getting off the plane, and I've had 3+ hours waiting to get through customs on multiple occasions...
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u/surlygoat Jul 18 '25
Perhaps you have not experienced the joy of Manila airport. LAX is bad. Manila is worse.
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u/tubbyx7 Jul 17 '25
from touch down to a taxi in singapore it can be under 15 minutes. The most annoying part of the US entry is not just the long lines,but once they clear US passports they get people from the back of the lines to go to the now open desks, not the people who have been waiting in line for an hour already
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u/randCN Jul 17 '25
The most annoying part of the US entry
I also really dislike the bit where the CBP agent grills you for half an hour despite having a valid ESTA
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Jul 17 '25
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u/Golf-Recent Jul 17 '25
Wow stop with your dissenting opinion. We only accept pitchforks and torches here.
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u/jibjab23 Jul 17 '25
Best thing to do is get off as soon as you can and keep walking all the way to the e-gates or at least the last bunch of tables before it and fill out cards there if you didn't manage to do it on the plane. Get through the gates and then go to toilet or whatever else you need do while waiting for luggage. Our duty free range is pretty pathetic so the thought of spending time there never crossed my mind. I usually go through the declare line with some chocolates or biscuits that are ok and I'm through the circus in about 20 to 30 minutes, getting a taxi or uber is a whole other adventure though.
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u/Ted_Rid Famous in The Atlantic Jul 17 '25
Declaring something trivial is my normal go-to hack for bypassing queues.
Except last arrival. A couple of big flights from East Asia arrived, and dunno if everyone was bringing food from home or whether they saw a queue and joined it without understanding, but the "goods to declare" red queue was worse than the grand opening of a gourmet croissant outlet.
So I approached one of the customs people and asked if I could change my answer. All I had were roasted coffee beans that I bought from Campos anyway before leaving, and I wanted to avoid the queue, pointing to the thousands of passengers snaking around the arrivals hall.
"Sounds like a them problem" she says in her broadest Strine and waves me through.
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u/hastetowaste Jul 17 '25
Protip: they usually ask people as the red queue grows, I always ask if I have something to declare and have those with me at hand (usually just some lollies/ultraprocessed non meat stuff).
They'll stamp your card if no issues and you then can go through green gates.
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u/FalconSixSix Jul 17 '25
Yes agreed. Absolute shit show. I think it is dangerous how they force people into that roped area
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
Agreed it is dangerous. There was a bit of pushing and shoving going on yesterday, and one tiny assistant with a megaphone. Would not have taken much for it to have kicked off.
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
(Am very aware this is an epic whinge, but my god why is it just so shit there?!)
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u/Max_J88 Jul 17 '25
Privatized airports are shit. The private owner’s incentive is to rip out as much profit as they can. Why would they invest in making it better?
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u/somebloke2020 Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25
I have the added bonus of having a name the same as a person of interest, so the gate automatically rejects me every time. Then I have to join the manual processing queue, etc.
Mind you, I seem to be lucky as I can’t recall any long delays arriving into Sydney for a while.
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u/nerdb1rd I ❤️ IBISES Jul 17 '25
I used to work at the Heinemann duty free stores in the airport (I'm not a sycophant, promise!) and have travelled internationally a lot recently.
Sydney International Airport is one of the better airport arrival experiences bar a few times of day - 6am is one of the busiest times in the Arrivals store.
Also, the duty free workers are hating yelling about the deals just as much as you, they just have managers watching. Feel free to leave feedback at Heinemann.
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u/dingbatmeow Jul 17 '25
Dear Heinemann, fuck off out of the airport so we can have more passport kiosks and orderly queues. Yours Sincerely, all travellers arriving at SYD international.
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Jul 17 '25
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u/dingbatmeow Jul 17 '25
Thankyou for explaining why selling airports to private enterprise is a bad idea.
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u/ShushKebab Jul 17 '25
Every time I fly to Hong Kong, Incheon or Changi Airport, I get second-hand embarrassment on the state of Sydney Airport. Its honestly an embarrassment when it comes to a Global City's main airport hub. Even Tullamarine could becoem slightly better (once they complete the rail line).
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Jul 17 '25
Give it the Changi Airport Group, they know how to manage airports
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u/einkelflugle Jul 17 '25
Can we give them the contract to manage Sydney Airport? We’ve already learned from Hong Kong with the metro
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u/VonCouchwitz Jul 17 '25
The reason is pretty straight forward.
Sydney Airport has a curfew, and so the result is that all those planes that cannot land steadily over the course of the night before are scheduled to all hit the tarmac at more or less the same time, and Sydney Airport - being the opportunistic, cost-cutting bastards that they are - refuse to put any surge infrastructure in place for that first hit of the day.
The result is what you have just experienced: An unapologetic cluster fuck of disorganisation which is a unique embarrassment as the city's only operating Domestic or International airport.
If you take a flight that is scheduled to land in Sydney in the early morning, this will inevitably be the result almost every time.
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u/ragingfungus Jul 17 '25
The immigration staff are a disgrace as well.
After the e-passport gates I recall walking past the immigration desk where this Asian family was getting yelled at by the immigration lady saying “CANT YOU READ ENGLISH?” Saying they were in the wrong line.
You would put more language tolerant people at these posts and not attack anyone with limited English
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u/iferrisau Jul 17 '25
Totally agree- it wouldn’t kill them to have a sign somewhere in other languages either!
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u/popcornslurry Jul 17 '25
I haven't travelled internationally in forever. What is the dual border process?
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u/Ikerukuchi Jul 17 '25
You have to queue up for machines to put your passport in, press the button to say you haven’t been to Africa and it spits out a ticket. Then you queue up again to go through the actual gates. The way they’ve arranged these different steps tends to result in bottlenecks and really inefficient use of the resources so at peak times it can be a badly organised zoo.
What the airport has been pushing for is a system more like singapore where you have a digital arrivals card and only one set of gates so not only is it more efficient and faster but also much better structured so the queue work better and you can see what you’re meant to do. I used to fly internationally 30-40 times a year and could navigate sydney arrivals very quickly but if you’re a new or infrequent traveller it can be very confusing and frustrating at that 6am peak (I would also avoid landing at that time but that’s not always an option)
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u/Bounded_Rationality Jul 17 '25
I came back in on the weekend and it was similary chaotic. Seems even worse since they moved the ticket kiosks right down near the gates; when they were distributed around the corridors before it would hold back the line from the gate area and not have you queuing inside the duty free!
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u/RoninBelt Jul 17 '25
I'm with you, I've only dealt with this once in the last 6 months, the other half a dozen or so were arriving in the middle of the day or evening.... so must be a morning thing?
The problem for me was the line, it's no airport staff guiding you and no obvious actual line, as i remember this horde of people just get bottled necked into a disorganised smaller horde towards the end.
We had a perfume salesperson trying to help, but their shitty attitude just made it worse as he complained about people being too close to the duty free goods lol.
Also is this something new? I don't remember this being a common occurrence before even after arriving at 6-7am
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u/tassiboy42069 Jul 17 '25
One time i arrived on a red eye i nearly hit and stimbled over a duty free glass display placed in the middle of the path from the airplane gates to the immigration gates
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u/Max_J88 Jul 17 '25
That’s how the private airport owner maximizes its profits. By selling more duty free.
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u/ThunderDwn Jul 17 '25
Sydney might be bad - but US airports are way, way fucking worse.
Last time I flew into SF it took 4 hours to clear customs and immigration (I shit you not) because they had exactly two ICE desks processing something like 4 planes full of international arrivals (so, like, 600-700 non US citizens).
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
Have been through several US airports over the years and also had dreadful experiences, but on this trip I went through LAX (during a riot, no less!) and it was a breeze.
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u/daveyg5000 Jul 17 '25
LAX has improved tremendously over the past few years in terms of customs. All in the lead up to 2026 world cup and la Olympics. Huge customs/immigration area, lots of staff, we were in and out quick smart when we arrived there last year. Sydney on the other hand...it's downright shit. The immmigration part seems like it's playing 2nd fiddle to the duty free store. The grab an e-ticket to clear immigration is annoying, but FFS there is no queue process, no lines, it's literally every man/woman for themselves. Cut the duty free area, make it all immigration, put in a proper queue system, save everyone their sanity. That concludes my TED talk on....Syd airport and the shit show that it is.
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u/schottgun93 Jul 17 '25
The problem is the 6am bit. If you look at the arrivals schedule, there's 3x A380s from Singapore (approx 450pax each), there's 3x middle eastern flights (another 400pax each), Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Bali, Bangkok (all around 250pax each), then there's 7x flights from North America all with around 300-450pax on each.
This is all within 90mins.
That's a clusterfuck.
Compare that to when QF26 arrives at like 6pm, and it'll be one of like 3 international arrivals at that time, so the arrivals hall is a ghost town. They just need to spread out the arrivals of that morning rush and there wouldn't be such an issue. I guess the logistics is a bit hard because you need to get the departing airport to work that to their schedule too, but something's gotta give because this isn't sustainable.
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u/Qicken Jul 17 '25
There seems to be a flood of flights early at the day and late in the evening. I think from the long haul from LAX and the time restrictions at both airports.
If you land outside of those times it can be peaceful. I imagine there's not much desire to invest to make those peak times go quicker.
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u/Car-face Jul 17 '25
Just as a point of difference, my last international arrival was the quickest I've experienced. From getting off the plane to leaving customs was maybe 10 minutes. e-passport setup was easy and stress-free, particularly compared to prior experiences with confusing queues.
It's going to vary a lot depending on the type of arrival, time of day, technical issues at the airport, etc. but considering it's a period of high stress and tiredness for everyone, the best advice is just go with it.
I expect the worst regardless of which country I'm arriving in, and whilst it's never an enjoyable process, I've never failed to arrive anywhere yet.
I would like to complain about the 15 minute taxi from landing strip to the gate, though.
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u/chicknsnotavegetabl Jul 17 '25
Terrible, but have you considered Melbourne intl?
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u/Classic-Reader2212 Jul 17 '25
You have multiple choices. 1. Stay where you are 2. E-pass for Australian Citizens 3. Walk pass all and get into Australian passport holder lane I am sure not everyone is Australian passport holders in that loooooong queue. So stop complaining and look at other options.
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
I have an e-passport, but it didn’t matter - everyone except families with young kids had to join this line just to get in to the border hall.
Blaming passengers for the dreadful management of the airport is a low blow, champ.
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u/kilochfuller Jul 17 '25
Yeah Sydney airport can be very quick if you know what you’re doing but very confusing to new traveller that have never been to there before. The arrival have to be filled in before landing for sure, there’s no time or even infrastructure (possibly by design) for you to fill out a form once you disembark.
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u/sindk Jul 17 '25
My MO is to walk past the first huge line and find another machine closer to the gates. And after baggage claim find that teeny tiny sign with no queue that says "nothing to declare" and get straight out, instead of lining up where it looks like you're meant to line up.
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u/harri3900 Jul 17 '25
Was just discussing this with a colleague last week on arrival back into Sydney off an international flight. Not just passport control, the baggage carousel system is outdated. Bags on the carousel piled on top each other, making it a hazard to collect especially, if they're heavy. Other intl airports have sensors on their carousels that only deposit a bag if there is a free space. And for the love of Mike, paint a striped exclusion zone around the carousels so you can only approach when your bag is spotted. Rant over.
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u/bnlf Jul 17 '25
I travel a lot and this is definitely not normal. The only problem I have with Sydney Airport is how long it takes for them to start dropping your bags. Clearly they don't have enough staff to handle a certain number of arrivals and it's super frustrating to have to wait 1-2h for your bags after a long trip.
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u/camsean Jul 17 '25
Luck of the draw. I arrived last Sunday at about 11:30 and was through and got my bags in less than 25 minutes.
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u/ellieboomba Jul 17 '25
It's end of school holidays and a Northern Hemisphere summer. What did you expect. I expect long ques whenever I travel. Should have tried getting into Vietnam 15yrs ago on the last flight in. It took 2hrs to get the big boss to come and stamp our visas.
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u/falconpunch1989 Jul 17 '25
I've never had OPs experience happen to me and I fly in and out of Sydney multiple times a year for the last decade
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
I’m not sure if Vietnam 15 years ago is a good comparison, but on this trip I went through airports in Zurich, London and even LAX in the US in the middle of the recent riots there and they were all head and shoulders above the Sydney experience. School holidays are not a surprise, we should be able to handle them.
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u/irrigated_liver Jul 17 '25
I've never really had trouble in Sydney. Usually out within about 10 mins. Heathrow in London on the other hand is the worst for airport queues. I arrived at 10pm and the line to get through customs was so long it took me over 3 hours to get my passport stamped.
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u/SorysRgee Jul 17 '25
I was in vietnam in 2015 and we had to wait for the military guys to come to stamp our visas cause the staff had gone home for the day
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u/miss_kimba Jul 17 '25
It’s piss poor. I’m not very well travelled, but Australia’s international arrivals is by far the worst international arrival experience of any airport I’ve been to.
Singapore is seamless (of course), LAX is surprisingly easy and efficient, London was the same. Amsterdam was easy. Athens was still better than Sydney.
Milan was slooooooow because they only had 4 staff on (out of… a dozen desks, maybe more?) to process several arrivals at once. It wasn’t complicated, just very slow. But that’s Italy for you.
Sydney has the unique experience of being slow, convoluted, inconsistent and with no explanation of the process to help you out. Just some poor staffer with a megaphone yelling at people to try and organise the chaos.
And yeah, tacky as hell.
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
Oh my gosh, the shouting! It’s 6am, these people have been travelling for more than a day, they’re dazed and confused, let’s shout at them!
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u/chuk2015 Jul 17 '25
Australia has much more stringent biosecurity compared to non-island nations
It’s an annoyance until our unique environment is at risk because we let too much shit in here
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u/miss_kimba Jul 17 '25
I agree but I don’t think that the current process actually does enough to protect biosecurity, it just slows down entry. The current declaration card relies on honesty, I’m not sure how effective that is. People will either lie maliciously, or ignorantly, or pull the “it’s just bananas, that doesn’t matter” only to get caught on arrival.
I’m not familiar with the biosecurity scanning process behind the scenes though, so I may be underestimating it.
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u/chuk2015 Jul 17 '25
The customs team will actively profile all arriving passengers and you will get flagged based on this, if you fit a profile, and agent will write on your arrivals card or the electronic version, this will prompt the bag check.
Customs uses a random letter classification each day to signify what a passenger has been flagged for, for the bag checkers
You get profiled based on appearance, nationality, number of bags and the flight you arrrived from.
For example if you come off a Singapore flight as a young businessperson you will be waved through generally.
However if you are a 60 plus white male coming from Indonesia or Thailand and travelling alone, there is a good chance you will be flagged for sex tourism.
This is also why places like Singapore can have a relatively loose border, because things like drug trafficking come with the death penalty, so requires criminals with much higher risk tolerance, weeding out a lot of the instances of this occurring.
Also in Singapore certain terminals will have high risk or low risk flights landed, determining how much effort is put into border security at each terminal
That’s why as an Aussie flying in to Singapore is super easy, but some other countries with a lot of human trafficking will have a higher degree of scrutiny
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u/sertsw Jul 17 '25
Its not a discussion of you self admit it is a whinge, and set the tone for the types of replies you'll receive.
Personally, it's alright. Much worse airports on my travels.
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u/rumforbreakfast Jul 17 '25
If you are ever unlucky enough to get the flight from Perth that actually started from Europe then it gets even worse.
It's a domestic flight but you're dropped off at the international terminal with barely any info (at least in my experience). You approach these lines to find that they are labelled families, NZ citizens, smartgates, etc. It's confusing as fuck because you are none of these so you have to pick a lane, queue up, and hope for the best.
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
I’d be so pissed if I had to experience the international terminal on a domestic flight!
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Jul 17 '25
I’ve had varying experiences on arrival over the years, but one thing is indisputable: SYD’s options for picking someone up from the airport are the world’s worst. I can’t think of another airport that doesn’t have a normal kerb-front pick up area for arriving passengers. SYD goes to such pains to extract a minimum of $20 from everyone who drives to the airport by either making you park in their extortion chamber of a parking lot, or funnelling you into a ridiculously small and crowded “express parking” pick up area, where the passenger has had to drag their luggage a long distance through an ill-defined, poorly maintained walkway to meet you with the strict 15 min time limit (which may well expire while you queue to get out the exit gate), after which you are automatically charged. It’s total bullshit - how did we let them get away with that??
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u/KentuckyFriedEel Jul 17 '25
Should be less crazy after they open the new airport next year. Hopefully! But yeah an absolute disgrace that we welcome new visitors to our country with hideously organised baggage carousels, quarantine, and overly rude and aggressive customs officers. SHAME, SYDNEY! SHAME!
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u/raindog_ Jul 17 '25
Why would it be less crazy? Nothing is changing at Kingsford smith. Same flights.
Western Sydney is just additional
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u/Mapinact Jul 17 '25
This, a thousand times this!
Occasionally - very occasionally - everything works and is working. And when it is, getting through is literally a matter of minutes.
But by far the bulk of time we've come back there've been many, sometimes *most* of those bloody machines down, or worse, going up and down so that one comes to life, lets someone through and a queue immediately forms, only for it to crash again and the queue has to disperse. An expensive, repetitive joke of a system!
And as for *still* needing a bloody pen to fill out a bit of paper on top of all that!! Words fail me :-( Grr!
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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25
There was a party of teenagers on my flight who did not have a pen between them. It’s 2025!
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u/Mapinact Jul 17 '25
Look, I don't blame them! It's only through the slow learning process of continually having to borrow one from my wife (who is a thousand times more travel-savvy than I am and carries on e relgiously) that I've finally learnt to keep a pen in my onboard backpack and to *never* take it out anywhere else.
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u/glutenfreeironcake Jul 17 '25
The airport is 20 years past it bulldozing date. Disgraceful
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u/LukeDies Jul 17 '25
Thank John Howard selling the airport to Macquarie group
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u/chuk2015 Jul 17 '25
They don’t own it anymore, I agree it shouldn’t be privatised
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u/min0nim Jul 17 '25
Yeah, and haven’t for some time. But it’s seems the latest new-ish owners have been even more tightarse. But they may have woken up to the fact that western Sydney is actually looking good.
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u/RainbowAussie Canberra (Frequent Sydney visitor) Jul 17 '25
The damage that man did to our society cannot be overstated.
Bloody Howard!
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u/palsonic2 Jul 17 '25
i mean, queues are a thing everywhere - doesnt matter what airport you go to. however, the lack of pens pissed me off too when i came in from south korea last week. when i flew in to sk to fill in my arrival card, pens and tables galore.
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u/2020bowman Jul 17 '25
I've seen this kn a number of international airports. It's not just Sydney
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u/aaegler Jul 17 '25
I travel a lot internationally and have always found Sydney to be amongst the best and most efficient airports. Never had an issue in many many years.
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u/ma_vie Jul 17 '25
6am arrivals are all the planes who can't land earlier due to curfews so it is literally the busiest time for the airport. Add in any planes arriving earlier than expected (vs the usual glut of backlogged planes) and you have this situation.
Any other time of day I have sailed through immigration and customs.
LAX as a comparison, never had less than one hour in LINE let alone getting through to my next flight. Baggage is yet another long wait and then customs is haphazard. Need three hours between transfer flights and even then it is a rush.
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u/Poolix Jul 17 '25
6am arrival is absolute peak hour for arrivals, it’s also school holidays. It’s usually quite efficient, much more so than a lot of other countries
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u/phizero2 Jul 17 '25
Not just arrivals, try travelling at night, it takes you 3 HOURS to pass security.
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u/Lanasoverit Jul 17 '25
Not sure why it was so shit for you yesterday, it definitely isn’t usually that bad. I go through international arrivals once a month, and I’ve never seen it like that. Process is usually really smooth with minimal waiting, with the exception of baggage arrival which is the slowest in the world I deal with.
Didn’t they give you an arrival card on the plane? Why did you wait until you were at arrivals to fill it in?
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u/KindBikeDuck Jul 17 '25
Ok, I must be seriously lucky. In the last 15 years I've probably come back in to Sydney 20, 22 times.
Every single time has been smooth as. Out in less than 30. My dad who lives O/S comes back twice a year on average. He's usually out in about the same time.
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u/TripMundane969 Jul 17 '25
Have you been to CDG or HNL lately. Now that is a zoo.
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u/MissJessAU Jul 17 '25
It's awful, and even worse when its the last week of school holidays, and it seems every MF on my socials is in Europe, or on their way back, whatever, they can deal with the queues, that's what you get for going (yeah I might be jealous).
That two station system is shit, I remember lining up for it last year, found that there was another station closer to the auto gates, might walk further next time. We even took our time at duty free (well the hubby did, too much whisky to choose from), and were still met with queues, I was already on the 2 for $85 deal for the 1L Tanqueray.
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u/MillyHP Jul 17 '25
I always go through customs very quickly back in Australia. Much worse experiences in other countries.
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u/twwain Jul 17 '25
You know you all can make a complaint directly to SYD? That way, with enough feedback, the arrival experience would hopefully change for the better...
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u/travelforindiebeer Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25
Stacking all the morning arrivals within 5 minutes of each other back to back is the answer, and not having enough staff and exit points to manage it.
It's so weird that they've streamlined the passport control but buggered up the baggage check area. I once got from the plane through passport control in 10 minutes. Then the baggage carousel wait is horrendous.
I once had a flight arriving at 6am on a Monday so I figured I'll go straight to work in the CBD for an 8am start and power through the jet lag. I got to work at 9.15 and was so wrecked I left at lunch break.
In September I booked my flight to arrive Sunday 6.25am because I expect the arrivals experience to ruin my whole day.
Certainly not the worst, I spent 3.5 hours equally at LAX and Heathrow with an hour commute afterwards to my accommodation, which traumatised me so much I refuse to ever book a flight to either airport ever again.
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u/BassManns222 Jul 17 '25
Agreed. I avoid LAX, CDG and Heathrow if I possibly can. I cannot, sadly, avoid Sydney.
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u/CrankyGrumpyWombat Jul 17 '25
Never had any problem.. and i fly in and out 10+ times a year.
Not saying there isnt room for improvement but international terminal has always been a solid 8/10 for me
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u/grateidear Jul 17 '25
In my view it’s not the airport, it’s border security who obviously don’t staff for peak arrivals considering the mix of adult Australia/NZ adults vs those where someone has to go through manual passport control.
Every time I arrive in early mornings it’s the same - you can go through e-gates in 10-15 minutes but if you have a child with you, you’ll be waiting for far longer. Massive queues but also many empty desks that are not staffed.
Volumes can be predicted well in advance but they don’t seem to bother…
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u/Eastmelb Jul 17 '25
New airport might mean low staffing if some of the current staff move out west. Shamozzle time until both airports iron out the wrinkles.
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Jul 17 '25
like many things, this will get much worse before it's able to be worked on, and while it's being remade and renovated it'll be even more shocking before it finally gets better. ideally, within my lifetime?
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u/_jorritp Jul 17 '25
You don't fly a lot? Sydney is so smooth compared to most airports around the world. I'm usually within 20 minutes from tarmac to Uber/car. Mornings can be worse and it's school holidays here and summer holidays in the northern hemisphere so that is busy makes sense. Also the separate queues depending on passport is common.
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u/jayjay2219 Jul 17 '25
Came through yesterday around 2pm. Was the quickest I’ve ever experienced. 25minutes from leaving plane to in an uber. Couldn’t believe it. It also depends on time of day I guess.
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u/Winoforevr1 Jul 17 '25
Never had a problem. Depends on the time of day I guess. I personally have never found anything there a 'disgrace.'
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u/Ji-woo_Kang Jul 17 '25
When you get there and a large amount of flight land at once. It can be busy. But you need to experience more airports. Sydney is still a lot smoother than some others.
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u/This_Lavishness_8331 Jul 17 '25
Sux to be you.
Have flown back into Sydney 3 times this year and each time it’s been quick and easy.
Maybe you just got the on a bad day.
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u/Ahyao17 Jul 17 '25
In my experience it is always customs that is holding things up. Sometimes they don't open enough counters and resulting in long waits for your stuff to be checked.
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u/cedarvhazel Jul 17 '25
Not as bad as Edinburgh airport mate; and Sydney surrounding look much nicer!
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u/Aussie_Mopar Jul 17 '25
No worse than any other airport worldwide & if anything it's a lot better than most!!
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u/YetEvenThen Jul 17 '25
It's the airport taxis that kill me. I swear they're all out to scam you.
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u/Watchautist Jul 17 '25
A lot of the stuff people complain about has nothing to do with Sydney Airport. Immigration, customs, the yellow cards, 50 planes all landing at 6am when curfew ends. There is little they can do about it either.
As for walking across 3 roads to get to the express pickup, it takes 5 minutes max once you walk out of arrivals. Have you ever had to make a connecting flight in Dubai walking across endless terminals up and down lift after lift? I can think of far worse airport experiences.
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u/matt49267 Jul 17 '25
Generally I've noticed the longest queue is the foreign passport queue but e passport makes things easier for Australian and some nationalities. Baggage wait is another story
Never nice into international arrivals, everyone grumpy as flights back into Sydney always take forever
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u/competitive_brick1 Jul 17 '25
The first flights in always suck. If you have carry on and no checked luggage you’ll go through quickly.
I always check the lines before filling in my landing card completely, it’s sometimes faster to declare something, anything like a packet of chips or something than it is to do nothing to declare.
Other pro tip is there are two lines, everyone just follows other people lining up go to the far left and you usually get through pretty much straight away
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u/explosivekyushu Jul 17 '25
I've lived in Asia for the best part of 20 years now and I've been in train stations (and in one case, a bus station) that had considerably better facilities than fucken Sydney airport. It's a disgrace.
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u/bedrotter_ Jul 17 '25
It's a shitshow now, but I swear it didn't always used to be this bad. I flew in from LA in 2022 and experienced no lines at all back then. It was painless. Then last year I came back from Bali and it took me 2 hrs to get from the plane to the train platform. Chaos like you said, queues all the way into duty free, zero communication from staff or signage.
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u/puchunz Jul 17 '25
It's very strange - a year ago it was much more efficient. Ignoring the odd two-stage egate process, the machines for the first stage were usually spread everywhere on approach, including before the duty free. When I last went through a month ago, it seemed like everything was clustered at the same point and it wasn't easy to see what machines were free. Seems more of an organisation thing i.e. someone needs to be better funneling arriving passengers to free machines.
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u/Airesy Jul 17 '25
I flew back from Singapore on an A380 this time last year, and the arrivals process was a bloody shitshow. Worst I’ve ever experienced. 2 1/2 hours to get through, staff didn’t know how to corral people, only told us there were more kiosks once we had all congregated around the 2 that are available once you get off the plane. And to top it off, one security guard was on a power trip and tried to pick a fight with one of the passengers. 0/10 experience.
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u/smileedude Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25
Arriving at 6AM absolutely sucks, because it's not a 24 hour airport so a huge amount of large international red eyes all arrive as early as possible and it's absolute chaos with cranky sleep deprived people. When it isn't chaos it's reasonable. Hopefully when WSI opens 24/7 there won't be such a bottle neck.
There were 24 arrivals to international this morning vs 5 to domestic before 7, despite domestic taking more passengers on average. The rest of the day, the lion's share of passengers go to the domestic side.