In May, Virgin Blue was forced to announce that it would be reducing its profit forecast for the year by 75 per cent. The reasons it gave for having to do so were a falling off of demand from passengers on domestic routes and the increase of capacity on domestic routes. Also in May, Qantas announced that it, and its budget carrier Jetstar, was carrying less passengers than a year before. Qantas also blamed increased capacity.

Qantas and Jetstar are currently awaiting delivery of at least 150 new jets. These will be used on international routes, to replace retired aircraft and on domestic routes. Virgin Blue is awaiting 105 Boeing 737s to add to its fleet of 53 aircraft. Tiger Airways, with a fleet of nine planes currently on Australian soil, aims to increase its fleet to 30.

David Epstein, spokesman for Qantas, has confirmed that the airline aims to increase the number of domestic seats it and Jetstar will offer passengers by 340,000 this year.

With a population smaller than that of Texas, Australian carriers may find it difficult to find domestic customers to fill their increasing capacity. The fact that most of the country’s population inhabits just eight cities will also make it difficult for airlines to increase the number of domestic routes they can dedicate their new aircraft to.

Mr Albanese added that Sydney Airport was vital for the wider economy as well as Australia’s tourism industry. He also announced that legislation was due to be introduced to parliament shortly which would make future airport developments more accessible to consultation by the community.

Also in attendance was the airport’s chairman, Max Moore-Wilton. He said that Sydney was the country’s most important city in terms of tourism, and that the improved terminal would leave a good impression on those arriving, as well as those departing from Australia.

The upgrade to the departures hall has cost around $500 million. The airport, which Mr Moore-Wilton described as one of the country’s most important pieces of infrastructure, handles around 45 per cent of all international passengers. The chairman also said that he welcomed the federal government’s decision to introduce a better and fairer air rights policy. He added that airlines should be able to freely respond to passenger demand and fly those passengers wherever they wished to go.

Russell Balding, Sydney Airport’s chief executive, said at the ceremony that the recent improvements were all part of an overall plan to accommodate an expected 79 million passengers who will make their way through the facility over the next two decades.

According to passengers on the Virgin Blue flight from Sydney to Melbourne, Newton boarded the plane, then exited the aircraft, as staff attempted to locate his numerous items of hand luggage to only see him casually walk back and take his seat.

It was reported that passengers heckled the actor, who was last to board with only a few pieces of carry on baggage.

Airline staff who had to find spaces for his bags in different overhead compartments then had to retrieve them again shortly after when they believed he had vacated the flight, which was already delayed due to lighting strikes.

The passenger said that Newton was the last to board and sat in the first row next to the door, as flight attendants found room to put his four or five carry-on bags, all the way down the aisle.

He suddenly stood off and walked back up the air bridge into the terminal.

Air regulations state that luggage cannot be carried on board a plane without the passenger.

The fellow passenger went on to report that the flight attendants could only find one, with angry passengers yelling that hse should be brought back on board to identify himself.

He casually walked back on the aircraft and took his seat on the already delayed flight; however the aircraft didn’t take off until 5pm.

A spokeswoman for the actor has confirmed the incident but said the he contributed to the delay of only a few minutes.