Sydney’s new international airport looks set to welcome its first passenger flights in October.

“We’re getting more and more match-fit each day,” Hickey said Simon Hickey, the airport’s chief executive.

The new airport, which will open in July for cargo flights, is located about 40 kilometres from the city centre and, unlike Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport where flight operations are restricted to operations between 06.00 and 23.00 PM owing to noise concerns arising from its relatively central location, it won’t have a nighttime flight curfew.

Air New Zealand is set to be the first international passenger airline to take advantage of the lack of restrictions. The carrier will begin flying from Western Sydney to Auckland Airport on October 26, operating both ways three times weekly.

Other airlines that will be among the first to fly to the airport include Qantas, Jetstar, Air and Singapore Airlines, while reports suggest Virgin Australia is also ‘looking closely’ at offering flights.

Western Sydney Airport has plans to have an initial terminal capacity of ten million passengers annually, with long-term plans to scale beyond 80 million.

By the end of the decade, it will enable added passenger capacity to the city at an equivalent of 200 extra flights a day.

The airport alone will cost a reported $3.8 billion to build, and an additional $7.9 billion will be spent on the Sydney Metro-Western Sydney Airport line, connecting the city centre with the airport, along with $1.4 billion for the M12 freeway for those who want to drive.

The Metro rail line to the airport isn’t expected to fully open until next year. In the meantime, a free bus service will run from several city centre points to the airport.