Imagine if JFK had to close every night at 11pm. Sydney's main airport does. Today Sydney opened a second airport, and it never closes. Sydney started looking for a second airport in 1946. Kingsford Smith sits 9 km from the city, boxed in by Botany Bay. When a third runway opened in 1994, the noise backlash was so bad that within three years the curfew was written into law and flights were capped at 80 an hour. Since then passengers have more than tripled, to 44 million before Covid, on the same land, under the same caps. Western Sydney International is 43 km west, and it can fly all night. It starts small, with a handful of Jetstar and Air New Zealand flights a day. The real test is Nov 23, when Singapore Airlines starts a daily A350 that leaves at 11:55pm, a time Kingsford Smith can't allow. Vietnam, Bali, Fiji, and Doha follow by the end of 2027. The catch: there's no train until December 2027. For now it's a bus or a drive down the M12. Within 10 years, I think most new long-haul flights to Sydney will start at the new airport, not the old one.