Sydney is the dominant provider of logistics and transport services in Australia. Each week, 517 scheduled passenger services depart Sydney’s world class international airport, providing 142,000 seats across 34 airlines. The large number of international passenger airlines operating out of Sydney, compared with other Australian cities, provides greater flexibility and choice for overseas business travellers as well as tourists.

More than 10.5 million international passengers moved through Sydney Airport in 2007-08, which was 45 per cent of the Australian total and more than double the share of the next largest international airport. Sydney Airport handled 50% of Australia’s international air freight and 61% of international mail in 2007-08. The airport is supported by significant clusters of customs agents, freight forwarders and integrators as well as transport and trucking companies. Sydney Airport was estimated to directly and indirectly contribute $16.5 billion or about 6% of NSW GSP.

New South Wales has three large sea ports connected to an extensive network of rail and road infrastructure. New South Wales ports moved about $70 billion worth of cargo in 2007-08, with cargo valued at $56 billion traded through Sydney ports. The Port of Newcastle is the largest export coal port in the world. In 2007-08, 89 million tonnes of coal, 1.3 million tonnes of alumina and almost 130,000 tonnes of aluminium were exported from the Port of Newcastle. New infrastructure at the Port of Newcastle will further increase export capacity and is expected to be ready for operation from early 2010. Port Kembla south of Sydney is a multi functional port with facilities for bulk goods handling commodities such as iron ore, coal and grain. The port is currently undergoing major expansion that will see general and break bulk cargoes, containers and vehicle handling becoming increasingly more important.