Sydney Airport

✅ Verified Review | Arrived on SQ241 from Singapore, we were sitting in row 53. Wheels touched down on the runway at 16.10. We left the plane and went through the electronic passport readers. When we reached the baggage collection our suitcase was already on the carousel. We headed through Customs for the airport hotel which is over the road from the terminal. We entered our room at 16.40. Well done Sydney.

We flew Air NZ61 from Rarotonga to Sydney. Due to bad weather our flight was prevented from landing for about 30 min. We were picked up by ground staff as my husband needed a wheelchair. Our Virgin flight to Melbourne was at 10 pm. We had a speedy pick up of luggage, immigration and customs checks. We really needed to hurry. The lady took us to the bus stop and dropped us at the disabled access. The only problem was there were no busses at that time. If she would have taken us to the train we might have made it. You would think that ground staff that assist people in wheelchairs would know the timetable and not just dump people.

✅ Verified Review | How times change. In 1983 I found Sydney airport toilets clean and fresh, and Indian airport toilets an "experience". Now I find Indian airport toilets clean and fresh, and Sydney airport toilets tired and not that clean. The toilets in domestic really need to be freshened up, they leave a bad impression.

✅ Verified Review | For such a busy airport an amazingly quick process. Arrived at 10.30 at Virgin terminal for noon departure. Entered through priority entrance 15 steps out of Uber (skyteam elite plus/ VA gold or platinum ) exactly one person in front of me. Boarding pass and x-ray machine combined under 1 minute. Nice lounge as well. Gate 6 within 5 minutes from lounge. I wonder if all visitors know about this fantastic elite feature.

I had an international flight from Brisbane to Venice via Sydney. Once arrived at Sydney domestic terminal, I had no idea how to get to international terminal, I asked a few people, and they informed me that there was a transfer bus or train which I had to pay for - $6 for a 5 minute trip, daylight robbery. Where normally in all airports around the world have free transfers. Once I worked out where the transfer bus stop was and paid for it, I was panicking that I would miss my flight. Once at the international terminal, the gate signs were misleading, had to ask 2 people which way were gates 50-63, it took me 15 minutes to walk fast to gate 61, with the staff urging me to hurry and being paged, I arrived on board so stressed. This is a huge disservice to guests travelling internationally and I hope never to fly from Sydney airport again. This awful experience has left me very angry and appalled.

Sydney is a terrible airport. No information, confusing, lost property was unattended. Clearly this airport is being run into the ground by private management. In desperate need of renovation, requires more staff, and needs to be reorganised.

✅ Verified Review | Sydney is not the flashest Airport but where it counts it is the best I've experienced. The reason. EGATES or Smart Gates. When you get off the plane if you are from a dozen or so countries you can use the EGATES. Simply put your passport in to be read, get the ticket, have your eyes scanned and off you go. Where Sydney stands out (because many airports have this facility) is that you go through the same process on departure. Queuing is minimal and you are out past security in no time. I'm not fussed that the first thing after security is you have to go through a very large Duty Free area, but the rest of the airport is continually being upgraded with shopping experiences and plenty of nice eating venues. Some areas are a bit tired but you can see improvements being made. I do think that it is a bit rich that you have to pay for trolleys. That's bad form.

✅ Verified Review | Arrived at Sydney Terminal 1 at 6.30 on Wednesday morning. Walk to arrivals from the gate was quite long and the terminal looked quite dated. Was confused about e-passport kiosks as signage isn't great and no information was given. Had to walk through a duty free shopping area, which was confusing. Managed to use the e passport kiosks round the corner and the process was really easy. Signage was good and the queue for the e passport gates was really short. Didn't have to wait a long time for baggage and the queue for customs/quarantine went really quick. Pleasantly surprised at the ease of arriving. Terminal building definitely needs updating though.

Went to pick up family from SQ251 on Sunday morning. It took 40 minutes to travel the 1 km of Marsh Street to the Airport. It is always bad but now there is only one lane into the airport parking due to even more road changes. I need not have worried as there were no air bridges for this aircraft and it parked remotely with passengers bussed in. After 75 minutes there was still no baggage - just under two hours to get through the airport. Then the car park, 31 minutes from level 5 to the boom gate all because it was that slow the machine was trying to extort even more money from already paid tickets. Yes there was one very harassed staff member there who for each car had to talk on the intercom to a remote location to have the boom gate raised. Yet over recent years the airport operator has miraculously managed to greatly increase the Duty Free shops but where are the gates for aircraft, where is the baggage service, where is the traffic management. State or Federal Governments need to take a firmer control of this embarrassment to Australia.

✅ Verified Review | Getting to the airport is an event in itself if you live in western suburbs. The train line is there but is expensive to use plus you have to change at some very busy interchanges. Train is not an option if you are travelling with family and have luggage. Airport and facilities: Plenty of parking, again very expensive! The terminal itself is worn and seems tired especially when compared to Asian counterparts. There are a decent number of food outlets available before immigration check in and yes there are showers incase you forgot to have one. Immigration queues are always long, lately the system has been changed which is very efficient and takes away having to stand in front of a bored immigration officer, however security check in is a terrible and takes forever. The facilities on the other side are nothing to write about, the duty free shops are not the cheapest in the world. On arrival if you AUS/NZ epassports, check out is extremely fast and efficient, the arrival hall is once again boring and tired.