Can Sydney Airport handle 65 million passengers a year by the 2030s? [Video]

“I think we’re partly to blame for why people think Sydney Airport is full. Some of the inefficiencies are our fault, some the airlines fault, some are the government and Airservices Australia’s fault.

There’s a lot we can do collectively to make the airport experience better for our passengers because there is still latent capacity there,” Charlton said.

Peak slots

There’s been a lot of talk about the archaic slot demand management scheme which governs when aircraft can take off and land at Sydney Airport. One of its biggest critics has been Sydney Airport itself. Its executives have long lobbied federal governments to modernise the rules to free up capacity and prevent anticompetitive behaviour by the major players.

But Charlton says the slot system is in a much better shape than it was before the pandemic.

“We’re obviously very positive about the government legislating the Harris Review which will clean some of …