Sydney airport is full and all the tinkering in the world won't change that, federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese says.
Mr Albanese says a new report, the most comprehensive study of Sydney's airport needs ever undertaken, makes absolutely clear that a second airport is needed sooner rather than later.
He says the limitations on Sydney airport are already hurting the economy and by 2035, the cost to national GDP of turning away flights will be $6 billion, and nearly six times more by 2060.
Proposals for a second Sydney airport have been discussed for some 30 years, with a number of possible locations considered, but it has been persistently deferred because of the high cost and difficulty.
Mr Albanese says Sydney Kingsford Smith airport was built in an age when aviation was new and planes were small and few.
In comparison, Tullamarine in Melbourne is more than twice the size of Kingsford Smith while Brisbane airport is three times the size.
"The uncomfortable fact, and it is one that can't be ignored, is that Kingsford
Smith Airport is full. All the tinkering in the world won't change that. Nothing will make that reality go away," he wrote in an opinion piece sent to media.
"Passenger numbers will more than double to 87 million by 2035 and double again by 2060. There is no way Kingsford Smith can absorb this growth."
Mr Albanese said doing nothing was already costing the Australian economy.
In 2000, half of all Australia's international flights were through Sydney but that had now dropped to 41 per cent while Melbourne's international traffic had grown by nearly 10 per cent.
A failure to increase Sydney's aviation capacity through a second airport would be a handbrake on future productivity, Mr Albanese said.
This month's report, prepared jointly by the NSW and federal governments, made absolutely clear that Sydney needed a new airport sooner rather than later, he said.
"This issue must be beyond short-term politics. It needs a mature bipartisan approach. Sydney is our gateway to the nation and the world. This joint report shows beyond doubt, we can afford to ignore these facts no longer."