Sydney Airport traffic grounded by gridlock - The Daily Telegraph

The back up of cars entering the terminal from Marsh St. Picture: Adam Taylor Source: DailyTelegraph

IT looks like the daily crawl to work for Sydney's suffering commuters - lines of traffic at a standstill, frustrated motorists going nowhere fast on the city's gridlocked road network.

But it's actually just after 7.30am yesterday on the approach to the airport's international terminal, a horror Sunday morning drive for thousands of people in danger of missing their flights.

The traffic snarl, caused by only one lane on Marsh St, Mascot, heading directly into the airport from the M5, is a frequent nightmare - and one which has prompted motorists to renew calls for more lanes, a better road network and, of course, a second airport.

Jervis Bay architect Bruce Cox flies overseas once a month and despite only travelling 10km from his father's home at Carlton, he had to ditch his idle taxi and walk for a kilometre to make his flight to Bangkok yesterday.

Bruce Cox jumped out of a taxi and walked 1km to the airport so he wouldn't miss his flight. Picture: Adam Taylor Source: DailyTelegraph

"Every major city in the world - Tokyo, New York, Kuala Lumpur - has inner-city check-in. If they want to improve train travel, add a strategic station with inner-city check-in. That would alleviate the need for people to be dropped at the door," he said.

"They need to put another departure lounge downstairs for people with no check-in baggage like me and a carpark drop off so people can get out of that mayhem this morning."

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Geoff Reeks, a builder from Panania, said it was obvious a second airport was needed.

"It's disgusting, they need a second airport at Holsworthy," he said. "It's got the open space, the transport to it. It's ideal space for it.

Hundreds of taxis wait for passengers to leave airport. Picture: Adam Taylor Source: DailyTelegraph

"Clearly you could build extra lanes. Inside the airport itself it's a disaster, there was no planning or thought. If you wanted to make it an obstacle course like Check Point Charlie that's the way to do it."

The mayhem also made a bad impression on international visitors to Sydney.

Seattle tourist David said: "We wouldn't have a traffic jam on Sunday mornings like this. Either easier access or a second airport (is needed)."

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Planes began arriving at 5am yesterday and departing at 6am, with a total of 90 flights until 11am.

Qantas accounted for a fifth of the flights, Virgin a 10th, but neither would comment about gridlock delaying customers.

Traffic chaos around Sydney airport on a Sunday morning at 7am. Picture: Adam Taylor Source: DailyTelegraph

Sydney Airport released its draft master plan last month and has invited public feedback until August 30.

The plan promises to improve the road network in the international terminal by 2018 and alleviate congestion without lifting its curfew.

But a state-federal joint study on aviation capacity, released last year, predicted the road network would be at capacity by next year.

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Airport chief executive Kerrie Mather said under the master plan "green light" time at key intersections would be increased by up to 33 per cent and passengers would be encouraged to use public transport, which currently only accounts for 17 per cent of trips to the airport.

Strategic Airlines Solutions chairman Neil Hansford said the problem was just as bad on most days of the week and the spreading of the "airport load" by easing the curfew to 4am would help.