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The NSW government has collected almost three-quarters of a billion dollars from train fares at Sydney Airport over the past 10 years.
Newly released figures cited by The Sydney Morning Herald have shown that the government took in $109 million from Sydney’s two airport stations over the past year and a total of $740 million since it began taking an 85 per cent cut of station revenue in 2014.
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Sydney Airport’s rail link, which opened in 2000 ahead of the Olympics, is operated by a private company, and customers are charged a station access fee of $17.34 for adults and $15.50 for children and concession card holders on top of the regular train fare every time they pass through the gates at the domestic and international terminal stations.
The fee is capped for adults at $35.16 per week; however, according to the airport and its retailers, this is still not enough relief for passengers and especially for employees.
“The high fares for the train commute into Sydney Airport have long been a burden for many of our over 400 frontline team members, and has negatively impacted our staff attraction and retention,” George Tsoukalas, managing director for duty-free retailer Heinemann Oceania.
“This is feedback we have consistently received from candidates, employee surveys and exit interviews ever since we first started operating in Sydney Airport almost a decade ago.
“We believe that a reduction in the access fee will help make Heinemann, Sydney Airport and the entire airport community more attractive employers, and give our team members more affordable transport options for their work commute.”
Sydney Airport is also calling for reform of the access fee, saying it is pursuing the matter with the state government.
“We are having ongoing and constructive discussions with the NSW Government about how we can make public transport more accessible for airport workers,” an airport spokesperson said.
“There are more than 30,000 people who work at the airport every day and we believe more of them would use the train if the access fee was reformed.
“We will keep discussing it with the Government – we both agree there’s a potential path to mitigating the daily cost of commuting for airport workers but there are some details we are still working through.”
A spokesperson for NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the contract with private operator Airport Link, which expires in 2030, makes it more difficult for the fees to be reformed.
“Any alteration to these arrangements would require Airport Link’s consent. That said, the government is applying itself to developing options to provide relief to airport workers,” the spokesperson told the Herald.
While the station access fee initially also applied to the nearby suburban stops at Green Square and Mascot, this was later eliminated in 2011 when the then-Keneally government subsidised the fees at these stations.
Sydney was the first of Australia’s four major airports to obtain a rail link, with Brisbane’s Airtrain opening in 2001. Perth opened its new $1.9 billion rail link last year, while Western Sydney International Airport will have a new metro line when it opens in 2026.
Melbourne remains the only major airport in Australia without rail access. A long-running stoush between the airport and the state government was finally resolved in July, having already delayed construction by several years.
