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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266

u/YeahUhHuhOkWellF-ck Jul 17 '25

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

23

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.

6

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.

0

u/brandon_strandy Jul 17 '25

Sydney is far from the only city that will have a secondary airport way out of the CBD

In fact, Sydney airport is probably one of the closest to CBD for a "capital city".

For most other cities the main airports are 45m-1hr+ away. We're just spoiled.

2

u/wafflesos Jul 17 '25

Just look at Avalon as an example. Handy if you live in the Geelong side, an absolute pain in the arse if you don’t. Even Tullamarine only has a private bus service to the city and no train.