{"id":641341,"date":"2026-10-26T00:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T00:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/641341\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T00:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T00:42:10","slug":"air-nz-flies-first-international-passengers-into-new-sydney-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/641341\/","title":{"rendered":"Air NZ flies first international passengers into new Sydney airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kiwis heading to Sydney now have a second airport option, after Air New Zealand flew the first international passengers into the city\u2019s new Western Sydney International Airport on Monday.<\/p>\n

Flight NZ165 from Auckland landed on Monday morning, just a day after the airport opened to domestic flights. The aircraft returned to Auckland as NZ166.<\/p>\n

The new airport sits in Badgerys Creek, about 50km west of Sydney\u2019s city centre, and operates 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n

Air New Zealand chief operations officer Kate Boyer said the route would strengthen trans-Tasman ties.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia and New Zealand share a special connection, and this new service is about bringing people and places even closer together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Western<\/p>\n

Western Sydney International Airport. (Source: WSIA)<\/p>\n

Boyer said the service<\/a> would open up tourism, trade and business opportunities on both sides of the Tasman.<\/p>\n

Western Sydney International chief executive Simon Hickey greeted the arrival with a nod to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cKia ora to our friends across the Tasman and a very warm welcome to Sydney\u2019s new global gateway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickey said the airport\u2019s round-the-clock operations would give airlines more flexibility to connect with global hubs.<\/p>\n

Passengers landing at the airport can complete their arrival declarations digitally before touching down, making it the first Australian airport to scrap the traditional paper passenger card from day one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiwis heading to Sydney now have a second airport option, after Air New Zealand flew the first international…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15656,85,138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-641341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-air-travel","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}