Facts

About Sydney Airport

• Sydney Airport is Australia's busiest and most important airport. It caters for 2.4 million passengers per year and sees 267,000 air traffic movements annually which equates to an average of 730 movements per day. The record number of daily movements is 1161 recorded on 2 October 2000.

• Covering a total of 881 hectares, Sydney Airport is the smallest major airport in Australia, half the size of Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne. Officially licensed in 1920, Sydney Airport is also the oldest international airport in the world.

• Sydney Airport is Sydney's biggest single industry providing 62,000 jobs. Around 500 external businesses rely on the Airport for the bulk of their trade. These businesses employ a further 108,400 people making Sydney Airport responsible for the employment of 170,400 people or 8% of Sydney's total working population.

• Sydney Airport has three air strips (6 runways in total) The longest is the main North/South runway (16R-34L) at 3960meters long and is one of only four commercial runways in the world capable of landing the Space Shuttle. The third or parallel runway (16L-34L) is the shortest runway at 2478meters and is built almost entirely on artificial land. It was opened in 1994. The East/West runway (07-25) is 2600meteres long. The runway system caters for up to 80 air traffic movements per hour.

Services at Sydney Airport

• The fueling trucks or transfer units, transfer fuel onto the aircraft at a rate of 3,500 litres per minute. The fuel is tested for purity to a level of 60 parts per million, five times from the time it arrives at the airport to the time is introduced to the aircraft. The aircraft at Sydney Airport consume an average of 6.6 million litres of 'jet A1' fuel per day.

• The Rescue Fire Fighting Service (RFFS) is on call 24 hours per day and is required by international regulations to be capable of reaching an emergency anywhere on the airfield within 3 minutes. The fire tenders at Sydney Airport are constant 6WD and weigh 34 tonnes when full. Each vehicle carries 10,200 litres of water and 1,300 litres of foam mixture. When mixed, this produces around 102,000 litres of fire retardant foam, which can be applied in around 2.5 minutes. Each vehicle was purchased at a cost of around $1.2million, a cost borne by the traveling public through levies placed on airline tickets around Australia (approx. $1.30 per ticket).

• The control tower at Sydney Airport was fully commissioned in January 1996 and contains all state of the art technology. Up to 7 controllers in the tower and 5 controllers in the control centre next to the old control tower at Kyeemagh, control up to 80 movements per hour in peak periods and up to 10 movements per hour during the curfew.

The Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet

• A Qantas Boeing 747 undertakes it's major service every 26,000 flying hours (about every 4-5 years). The process takes around 56,000 man-hours (around 6 weeks). The cost of the service in parts and labor alone is $4.5 - $6 million. The cost of purchasing a brand new 747-400 is around AUD$350 million.

• The Boeing 747-400 is the world's largest passenger jet liner at 70m long with a 60m-wing span. It's tail stands 19.5m tall and it holds 427 passengers in a typical "tri-class" configuration. With a fuel capacity of 230,000 litres of jet fuel, the aircraft has a range of 13,340km enabling flights between Sydney and San Francisco non-stop.

• The maximum take-off weight of the aircraft is 396,890kg. Each engine produces 27,240kg thrust (approx. 55,000hp) on take-off, which produces enough suction into the intake to ingest an adult male from 30 metres.