Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham

The contract for baggage handling services at the future Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport has been awarded to Vanderlande, a global leader in baggage handling systems.

Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, and Minister for Finance, Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham, welcomed the announcement.

Minister Fletcher said the contract award was another important step as the future airport continues to take shape.

“The new Western Sydney Airport will be a state-of-the-art piece of infrastructure, planned and designed with 21st-century thinking,” Minister Fletcher said.

“The airport will provide a source of jobs and economic growth for the region, and the awarding of this contract is yet another sign of the progress being made towards having this transformational piece of infrastructure up and running.

“This airport is the centrepiece of Western Sydney’s future prosperity, and is expected to support almost 28,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2031 by connecting businesses to national and international markets.”

Minister Birmingham said on-site construction continued to rapidly progress and drive job creation for Western Sydney.

“We are fast approaching the halfway point of earthworks for the new airport, which represents tremendous progress since on-site works kicked off,” Minister Birmingham said.

“This contract helps ensure that this world-class airport is on track to deliver quality domestic and international services for Australia and become Western Sydney’s gateway to the world.

“Every contract awarded on major developments such as this one are helping to drive Australia’s economic recovery from COVID-19.”

The Australian Government is investing up to $5.3 billion in equity to deliver the airport.