The Penrith CBD is about 13 kilometres from the 1780-hectare site at Badgerys Creek in western Sydney that has been set aside for the airport, slated to be operating within a decade. Some passengers may have to wait days to get on another flight. Credit:Jessica Hromas Indicative flight paths showed that planes would be flying above 5000 feet when they were over the Penrith CBD, which would mean a noise level below 70 decibels. "That is equivalent to the noise that you would hear from a passenger car travelling on a suburban road," Mr Truss said. For areas closer to the airport, such as around Luddenham, noise would come largely from taxiing aircraft.

"The noise impacts will be limited also because most of the aircraft will take off and land over the western Sydney employment area," Mr Truss said. A map released by the federal government on Monday, showing the noise contours from a Badgerys Creek airport. Credit:Department of Transport and Infrastructure "We do anticipate that noise levels around the western Sydney area will be manageable. They will generally be about conversational level in volume, and rarely would people be required to raise their voices because of the fact that there were aircraft movements in the area." The proposal for the first stage of the airport comprises facilities such as swing gates at its terminal that will be able to handle about 10 million passengers a year when it opens in 2025. That would make it of equivalent size to Gold Coast Airport. Within five years of opening, the airport is expected to be about the size of Adelaide Airport. Mr Truss said the airport's terminal facilities could be expanded to meet growing demand. The government expects a second parallel runway to be built by 2050, allowing the airport to handle about 82 million passengers a year.

The terminal would be located between the two parallel runways, while car parks would accommodate 11,500 vehicles in the first stage of the airport's development. The draft plan does not make provisions for a rail line to the airport when it opens in 2025, highlighting that recently approved upgrades to the nearby road network will be "adequate to support anticipated airport demand for at least a decade after opening". However, it said rail services could eventually be built by extending Sydney's south-west rail link. It also details the possibility of a dedicated airport express rail service from an unspecified "key transport hub" in the Sydney basin. The indicative layout for the airport allows for two possible rail routes across the site: one along a corridor under the terminal at right angles to the runways, and another parallel to and between the runways. The rail line through the airport site would be mostly underground to allow for at least one station in the terminal precinct. The latest environmental impact statement echoes two reports issued in 1985 and 1990 in finding "no insurmountable challenges" to developing an airport at Badgerys Creek.

"The findings of this environmental statement are in accord with the findings of those earlier statements," Mr Truss said. He added that the report was based on more than 700 field studies and indicative flight paths from Airservices Australia, the government body that oversees the country's civilian airspace. The assessment had also found there would be no significant impact on the greater Blue Mountains area, including its World Heritage values. "Any potential impacts would be low and well within internationally accepted standards," he said. In July, the government officially declared Badgerys Creek as the site for a second airport for the Sydney Basin.

"With Western Sydney's population set to balloon from two million to three million people over the next two decades, a western Sydney airport is about planning for that future," Mr Truss said. Under the plans, the airport's single 3.7-kilometre runway will be capable of handling domestic and international aircraft types ranging from Boeing 737s to Airbus A380 superjumbos. Analysts widely expect Sydney Airport to exercise its so-called first right of refusal to operate the new airport at Badgerys Creek. Pressure has also been building on the new Turnbull government to also make plans for a rail link to the airport – located about 50km from Sydney's CBD – when it opens in 2025. The Sydney Business Chamber said the latest two reports were significant milestones in the development of a second airport but it again called for a rail link to the site to be operational when the airport opens in 2025.

The chamber's western Sydney director, David Borger, said planning for a rail line to operate from day one would "supercharge" a business precinct near the airport and boost employment. "The report indicates that there should be a rail line at a point in time – we are arguing the point in time should be the day it starts its operations," he said. The draft report also highlights the magnitude of the construction job ahead, showing it will take about six years to level the ground for a runway, parking aprons and terminal. Almost 22 million cubic metres of soil will need to be excavated, which is equivalent to nine times the size of the Great Pyramids of Giza or more than 25,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. "It really is going to Sydney's big dig for the next 10 years," Mr Borger said. The noise and air-quality impacts from the airport – as detailed in the environmental impact statement – were less than many had expected, he said.

The Tourism and Transport Forum said the federal government's reluctance to commit to a rail connection when the airport opened was short sighted. "Without a strong rail connection, we risk Badgerys Creek becoming the hitchhiker's airport," the lobby group's chief executive, Margy Osmond, said. Ms Osmond said parts of the draft plan reflected an old world view of connecting an airport to a broader transport network by relying on roads and buses in the first years of operation. "It has been heartening to hear the Prime Minister talk about the importance of connecting the new airport to the Sydney rail network but today we find out that a rail connection won't be open on day one – that is not the way to operate a modern 21st century airport," she said. The public will have the next 60 days to comment on the draft plan and environment impact statement. Submissions close on December 18.