ITS been 30 years of posturing, political infighting and inaction, but Sydney's second airport is about to take flight, with federal cabinet set to sign off on the project and more than $200 million worth of transport links next week.

The Daily Telegraph has learned a cabinet minute prepared by Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss has recommended approval be given for Badgerys Creek airport and the $200 million connecting road network.

The minute is expected to be taken to cabinet next week, when Parliament resumes, with the full backing of Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Senior government sources have revealed that central to the approval will be an infrastructure package of up to $250 million that includes vital upgrades to roads around Badgerys Creek - such as Elizabeth Drive - and which the O'Farrell government has refused to fund.

Several senior government sources confirmed a "Badgerys Creek" minute had been drafted for cabinet next week.

"It's on. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the plan is for it to go cabinet next week," a senior government source told The Daily Telegraph last night.

The minute is believed to have not put a final price tag on the project - which one option has costed at $2.3 billion - but it is believed to give consent for negotiations to begin on the final plans and cost of the venture.

media_camera Linking Badgerys

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that ex-Liberal NSW premier Nick Greiner - who controversially resigned as Mr O'Farrell's infrastructure boss last year - has been recruited to privately lobby western Sydney federal Liberal MPs still opposed to the project.

Mr Greiner was a key supporter of Badgerys Creek, in contrast to Mr O'Farrell who has consistently ignored expert advice - including advice from his own government - backing the project. Sources revealed that Mr Greiner met yesterday with several federal MPs in western Sydney to convince them to drop their opposition to the project.

The most vocal opponent within Mr Abbott's party room is believed to be Liberal Senator Marise Payne, who has actively campaigned against the project since the '90s. Lindsay MP Fiona Scott is believed to also continue to have concerns about the project.

Mr Truss, who was said by colleagues to have been initially opposed to Badgerys Creek, has had a recent conversion and is now among its more strident proponents.

Treasurer Joe Hockey has lobbied heavily behind the scenes to rally support on the grounds that it would provide thousands of jobs to depressed manufacturing regions of western Sydney and ease congestion at Mascot.

Badgerys Creek has bipartisan support from opposition infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese. However, some Labor MPs from western Sydney, including the member for Chifley Ed Husic, are still opposed to it on the grounds it would unfairly transfer noise issues to people in the west.

SEEING IS BELIEVING FOR FLIGHT PATH WEARY

Sarah Crawford and Jim O'Rourke

EXCITED Bringelly business owners Tony and Gladys Estephen reckon a new airport at Badgerys Creek will kickstart a "dormant" region.

"Most people just want to get on with it," said Mr Estephen, of Sydney Water Gardens. "There's just not enough work in the area for people moving here. There are houses galore going up and no infrastructure for employment." His wife added: "It needs something to kickstart it ... it will improve the area immensely,"

And the new airport will also benefit the quality of life for those under the existing flightpath of Sydney Airport.

The walls shake at Dylan Williams' Tempe house every night as planes take off just 3km from his home.

media_camera Tony and Gladys Estephen, the owners of Bringelly Nursery and Water Gardens are in favour of the proposed airport at Badgerys Creek / Picture: Simon Chillingworth

"We are so close to the planes here you can almost see the pilot," he said from the patio of his Terry St house. But he's not complaining about living on the doorstep of Kingsford-Smith Airport.

"We bought the house five years ago because it was cheap, I can't complain too much. We knew what we were in for."

But he is excited to hear Sydney will get a second airport at Badgerys Creek and there could be fewer airline passengers peering down on to his property.

"It would do us good really, especially for the value of the house. Every big city needs two airports."

A few doors up retiree Diane Ferguson had given up hoping for a second airport.

After 20 years of broken promises she said she won't believe it until she sees construction begin at Badgerys Creek.

"There have been 11 promises and every one was put off for certain reasons. They just don't keep their promises. I am so cynical, I will believe it when I see it," she said.

"It's not just the noise (from planes) but the stuff that drops from the planes."

BILLIONS FOR NEW ROAD AND RAIL LINKS Jim O'Rourke

BILLIONS of dollars of transport infrastructure, including new rail links and motorways, will need to be built to take passengers and goods to and from Sydney's second airport.

And experts say the sooner the transport links are constructed, the sooner western and southwestern Sydney can take advantage of the economic benefits set to flow from the development of the airport at Badgerys Creek.

The Western Sydney Airport Alliance, one of the leading advocates for a new airport, said modern road and rail links to the site are critical.

Alliance spokesman David Borger, who is also Western Sydney director for the Sydney Business Chamber, said the state government could extend the South West Rail Link, which terminates at Leppington, to the new airport.

Mr Borger said there would then be an option for the line to head north from the airport to meet the existing Western Line and create an orbital line that not only services the airport, but give people in southwest Sydney greater access to public transport to the city's northwest.

Mr Borger said Elizabeth Drive, at the northern end of the airport site, must be widened and upgraded to handle greater capacity.

"It will be a direct link to the M7 and M2 motorways back to the city," he said.

A Deloitte Access Economics study suggests that close to 30,000 jobs and $9 billion in economic output will be created in the region when the second airport goes ahead.

Mr Borger predicts many of those jobs will be in new industrial precincts that spring up in areas such as Luddenham to take advantage of the new transport links.