Concerns about road congestion and public transport links have easily overtaken aircraft noise as the biggest public issues confronting Sydney Airport.
And with only one bus route, Australia's busiest airport is pressing the state government to improve bus links, especially to Sydney's south west where thousands of airport workers live.
Weeks ahead of the release of a 20-year blueprint for Kingsford Smith, Sydney Airport government and community relations chief Ted Plummer said improving ground transport access such as bus and road links was one of the airport’s top priorities.
“Ground transport is far and away the biggest issue for us, but aircraft noise comes second,” he said. “[Aircraft noise has] always been an issue of significance for Sydney – ironically it's not the biggest issue now.”
While road upgrades were critical, Mr Plummer said the airport continued to push for “better and increased public transport services to the airport”.
Road congestion to the airport's terminals is one of passengers' main gripes.Credit: Dallas Kilponen
“The more people we can get on buses and trains the better,” he said.
But more than four years after the government unveiled long-term plans to “improve bus access”, the 400 service between Bondi Junction and Burwood remains the only public service that stops at the airport's domestic and international terminals.
“Forty-four per cent of those 30,900 people who work at the airport live in the St George-Sutherland area and yet we have no direct public transport link to that area,” Mr Plummer told a meeting of Property Council members last week.
The airport plans to build a transport interchange at the domestic terminal to make it easier for extra bus services to be put on, particularly to St George and Sutherland.
About 24 per cent of passengers and people working at Kingsford Smith catch trains to get to and from the airport, compared with 13 per cent a decade ago.
Mr Plummer said the increase was largely due to people wanting to avoid congested roads and was despite the fact a $13.80 station access fee for the Airport Line raised the cost of train fares for those who passed through the stations at the domestic and international terminals.
While the increased rail patronage was good, he said airports in Europe and Asia had between 40 and 60 per cent of passengers travelling to and from them by train.
The state government has promised that $880 million in funding in the state budget for technology upgrades for Sydney Trains will result in eight more services an hour during the morning and afternoon peaks on the T8 Airport line. That will mean trains will run on average at least every four minutes, instead of every six.
However, the increased services are still years away.
Transport for NSW said an “initiative for investigation” over the next decade was a rapid bus link between the eastern suburbs and Sydny's inner west via the airport.
Sydney Airport will face an end to its near-monopoly grip on the city's aviation market when Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek opens in late 2026.
Mr Plummer said the impact of a competitor would be detailed in the master plan, but was already evident in forecasts that passenger numbers at Sydney Airport will be 65 million in 2039. In comparison, the present master plan – approved in 2014 – predicted 74 million passengers in 2033.
“In that, you can see the impact that Western Sydney Airport will have,” he said.
The airport's draft master plan will be released in August.