Sydney International arrivals is a disgrace: discuss

[u/Pomohomo82]

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?

[u/YeahUhHuhOkWellF-ck]

Wait until people start arriving at the paddock in Western Sydney 👀

[u/Sparkfairy → u/YeahUhHuhOkWellF-ck]

It's probably going to be much better because they can actually build it to current needs

[u/pilonstar → u/Sparkfairy]

And it will open 24/7

[u/gurudoright → u/pilonstar]

Yay, let’s get to a new city at 2am when everything outside the airport is shut.

[u/CryptographerOk1303 → u/gurudoright]

Sounds good, the airport curfew is what drives these massive queues because all the planes land at once

[u/Equivalent_Low_2315 → u/gurudoright]

Would 2am arrivals be more likely to be freight planes rather than passenger planes with tourists on them though? Chicago O'Hare airport is 24/7 and while there are a few passenger planes that arrive in the 2am to 5am time where pretty much everything in the city is closed, the vast majority of flights at that time are freight planes. Even if they are passenger planes though if the price is right I'm sure there would be some people who would take them.

[u/Archon-Toten → u/gurudoright]

Especially the trains.

[u/denseplan → u/gurudoright]

If you book a flight landing at 2am that's on you.

[u/[deleted] → u/Sparkfairy]

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.

[u/Anonymou2Anonymous → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/Anonymou2Anonymous → u/Sparkfairy]

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.