Air New Zealand's first international flight to the new Western Sydney International Airport marked an exciting — and unexpectedly confusing — milestone for some travellers.
Flight NZ165 made history yesterday as the first international passenger aircraft to grace the runway at Badgerys Creek after arriving from Auckland.
One of the 142 passengers aboard was a holiday-maker who told the ABC he thought he was travelling to Western Australia.
"I got confused, I saw Western Sydney," he said.
"I thought it was Western Australia, and I'm meant to be in Perth, but look, it's still pretty fun, so we'll make the best of it.
"I realised by the time I got on the flight that that's not where it was going, but we'll figure it out," he laughed.
"I'm on holiday, so it's not the worst thing," he added.
He was not the only one caught off guard by the unexpected destination.
Julie Lundmark, who was originally from Sweden but had arrived on a Jetstar flight from Melbourne, told the ABC she and a friend "landed here and looked out of the window and had no idea where we were".
"And we looked down the map and we thought to ourselves, 'we are a little bit lost'."
"The funny thing is we googled because we didn't recognise the name 'west airport' that was on the boarding pass, and we googled it and it took us to the normal Sydney airport," she explained.
She advised others to double check their tickets before travelling.
Other passengers told 9News they had a smooth journey, saying it was "not every day a new airport opens up".
Seven carriers have signed up to operate out of WSI.
The airport’s international network will expand on November 23 when Singapore Airlines launches daily flights to Singapore, while other airlines are planning separate services to Fiji, Vietnam and Qatar at later dates.
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