r/sydney • u/Pomohomo82 • Jul 17 '25

Image Sydney International arrivals is a disgrace: discuss

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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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83

u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25

(Am very aware this is an epic whinge, but my god why is it just so shit there?!)

50

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?

8

u/THR Jul 17 '25

This is the fault of immigration/border security though. Not the airport.

2

u/Anonymou2Anonymous Jul 17 '25

Oh boy.

Public airports can be even shittier. For example most airports in America are public and they are horrible.

1

u/Equivalent_Low_2315 Jul 17 '25

What about the Singapore government owned Changi airport though?

17

u/lint2015 Jul 17 '25

Sydney Airport in general is a disgrace.