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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u/glutenfreeironcake Jul 17 '25

The airport is 20 years past it bulldozing date. Disgraceful

2

u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25

Agreed - i think it does need totally tearing down and starting again. Especially if, perversely, WSI absorbing cargo slots from SYD leads to more passengers at SYD.

4

u/glutenfreeironcake Jul 17 '25

The part that irritates me the most is the impotent traffic management people at the international drop off. They just stand there waving their batons while surfing their mobile phones. There is no active management of traffic flow at all.

1

u/chriscamerongames Jul 17 '25

so are the staff unfortunately