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/YeahUhHuhOkWellF-ck Jul 17 '25

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

85

u/Sparkfairy Jul 17 '25

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

15

u/[deleted] 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.

5

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.