Qantas CEO calls for Sydney Airport terminal merger

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said that he is pushing for Sydney Airport’s new owners to merge its international and domestic terminals into a single super terminal.

Joyce, who was speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce event on Monday, described the separation of the terminals as his “biggest pain point” in Sydney and a merged domestic-international terminal was the solution.

Joyce said that the super-merger would enhance Sydney Airport’s investment case and ease transfers for its passengers.

“They would have to expand where we are in the domestic side – there is a whole series of hangars and land where they could expand into and create a new Qantas international terminal for Qantas and its partners,” Joyce said.

“That is a potential plan we would like the airport to work towards.”

Joyce said the merger could clear the way for Qantas to invest more into its lounge facilities and allow connections between domestic and international legs to run smoother.

The Qantas CEO’s comments came as part of a broader discussion on supply chain issues that continue to hamper the aviation sector while it recovers from the pandemic. Joyce said that it’s easy to forget the industry was shut down for almost two years and that, at one point, Qantas was 11 weeks away from bankruptcy.

“There was a time when we stared into no revenue and the costs going out, and the cash burn going out – the math was simple … it showed us we had 11 weeks to survive; 11 weeks of cash left.”

The Qantas CEO said that supply chain issues had put many of its aircraft out of action. He pointed to Qantas’ budget subsidiary Jetstar, which had five of its 11 planes out of action, causing the airline to cancel nearly one in every ten flights last month.

“Windshields – we usually have two or three spare parts but, right now, they are a restricted item worldwide,” Joyce said.

“We would have been able to replace that in 12 hours, maybe 24 hours at a stretch, but it took us nearly seven days to source and put it on, so you lose that aircraft for seven days.”

Joyce said that the problems Qantas was facing with supply chain issues still had 18 months until the airline could sufficiently fill its gaps.

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alan joyce qantas sydney airport Terminal Merger