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Sydney or Western Sydney Airport? Use our calculator
Western Sydney Airport's first flights leave today, but the cost of getting there is still confusing. Our calculator compares both airports for your trip: cost and time, side by side.
Western Sydney Airport's first flights leave today. Working out what it costs to get to either airport is still confusing, because the answer depends on where you start and how you travel.
So we use a calculator that does the sums for you. It compares Sydney Airport and Western Sydney Airport (WSI) for your trip, showing cost and travel time side by side.
Open the Sydney or Western Sydney calculator
A worked example
Here is what it says for one common trip: starting in the Sydney CBD, driving and parking in a shuttle car park, flying domestic and away for 7 nights.
- Total to get there and back: Sydney Airport A$157, Western Sydney Airport A$120. WSI comes out A$37 cheaper.
- Parking for 8 days: A$144 at Sydney (Blu Emu) against A$91 at WSI (P4 Long Stay).
- Fuel and tolls: A$13 to Sydney Airport against A$29 to WSI. This is the one line where Sydney wins.
- Time door to door: 64 minutes to Sydney Airport against 134 minutes to WSI, so 70 minutes more.
The catch is that time. Value it at A$30 an hour and WSI is only about A$2 ahead before fares. If WSI's fares end up more than A$37 above Sydney's, Sydney is the better deal.
Try this same trip in the calculator
Prices are approximate and were checked on 20 October 2026. Your suburb, car park and trip length will change the answer.
What it asks you
- Where you're starting: pick your area, from the Sydney CBD and the Northern Beaches to Parramatta, Penrith, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong.
- How you'd get to the airport: drive and park, rideshare or taxi, train, or get dropped off.
- Car park: if you're driving, choose shuttle, walk-in or covered parking.
- Your flight: domestic or international.
- Nights away: this matters most for parking, which is billed in 24-hour blocks, so a part day counts as a full one.
- Fares, if you have them: you can enter the return fares for everyone travelling, added up. Leave them blank and it tells you how big a fare gap would tip the decision.
What you get back
A plain-English answer, then the approximate cost and travel time for each airport, with the difference between them. Time is shown next to cost rather than added into it, and the calculator also values your time at $30 an hour if you want to weigh the two.
What's included
- Parking: taken from each airport's booking site, checked on 20 October 2026 for stays in January 2027.
- Driving: fuel at an average of 26 cents per kilometre, plus tolls on the way to Sydney Airport. Drive times are off-peak.
- Rideshare: a typical off-peak fare covering base, distance, time, tolls and the airport fee.
- Train: to Sydney Airport this includes the station access fee. Western Sydney Airport metro fares aren't confirmed yet, so the calculator can't price them.
Treat it as a guide, not a quote
Results are approximate. Traffic, tolls, surge pricing and when you book can all change them, so check the airport's own site before you pay. We're independent and not an official airport site, and we don't take bookings.
If you're flying out of Sydney Airport and want to be close to your terminal, see our best hotels near Sydney Airport and how to get to the city by train, taxi or rideshare.
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