Best seats in the house: New airport brings comfort to the economy class

It could be the ultimate democratisation of air travel: Seats near departure gates that are as soft and upholstered as those in the posh private club lounges exclusive to Qantas, Emirates and Virgin frequent flyers.

That’s the promise of the new airport furniture at Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport that has been designed, made and sourced by Gosford furniture company Burgtec.

Burgtec chief operating officer Michael Blatchford said he had been in the Qantas club for 20 years. “And then, you come down, and you sit on the rubbishy seats … [so we thought] ‘let’s try and give everyone that [club] experience’.”

A typical lounge chair in an office may only be used for half an hour a day, but the new upholstered lounges and chairs are designed to the same standard as those typically available only in airport lounges at other terminals.

“Unlike an office where people come in nine to five, this is going to be 24/7 bums on seats,” Blatchford said.

As for digital luxury, every second chair or lounge seat has an in-built phone charger.

Opening next year, it is expected that 8.4 million annual passengers and workers, including those from Border Agencies, will work, read, sit and snooze on the nearly 3000 pieces of airport furniture by 2030.

That will double to 19.3 million a year by 2045.

Burgtec, run by Joel and Oliver Kennard, designed 800 custom items in its Berkeley Vale factory, including an orange organic-shaped couch shaped a bit like a kidney bean with back support and its own Rondo ottomans. It supplied another 2200 items from other manufacturers.

Burgtec has some history getting things up in the air. The company name comes from the German-born furniture manufacturer, Wolfgang Schubert, who brought the first gas lift office chair to Australia.

That company was bought by the Kennard family, who merged it with their own furniture company, Accent. It now operates under the Burgtec name.

Airport chief executive Simon Hickey said the airport has spent $500 million on supplies and services bought from businesses based in western Sydney.

Deemah Stone Pty Ltd in Lakemba provided sandstone, sourced from a quarry in Gosford, for the airport’s feature wall; the hardware for check-in and bag drop-off was by Micron Manufacturing in Blacktown, and Smithfield’s Capral Aluminium provided custom-designed low-carbon aluminium for the ceiling battens.

The new airport’s architecture was developed to reflect the site’s location and its views of the Blue Mountains and the Cumberland Plain. The original concept design was by COX Architecture and Zaha Hadid Architects, with the final design by Woods Bagot.

COX principal and design lead David Holm said the design for the terminal drew “inspiration from the region’s native flora and expansive horizons – particularly the filtering of light through the curling bark of eucalyptus trees”.

“Undulating gently overhead, the terminal ceiling stands as a central design feature. Inspired by the play of sunlight through eucalyptus bark – its sculptural, functional form intuitively guiding the movement of travellers through the terminal.”

The designers also wanted the airport to feel calmer than others.

Holm said the “Great Australian Light” was central to the Australian experience and the design.

“The way light filters through the terminal shapes how people move, orient, and feel – creating a sense of calm, clarity, and connection. For many, this space marks their very first encounter with Australia, and we wanted that experience to feel unmistakably grounded in place.”

Blatchford said it had taken many tweaks and tests to develop and find furniture that would be durable and easy to clean.

The furniture is mostly in earthy colours – ochre, oranges, browns and eucalyptus greens – that matched the architects’ vision.

The contract is one of Burgtec’s biggest and most high-stakes jobs. “It’s Western Sydney Airport. You can’t take that away. If it was the same amount of money in a commercial building in Sydney, no one would care.”

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