All Airports
SYD

Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport

Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD) is Australia's busiest international gateway, linking the Pacific Rim to Europe, the Americas, and Asia through one of the most geographically consequential routing points in the Southern Hemisphere. This metal print captures that reach — built from real ADS-B flight tracking data. Every flight path is colorized by altitude across your chosen palette.

This print visualizes all 1,351 flights recorded on January 1–2, 2026 — the 106th anniversary of the establishment of the original airfield that would become SYD. Printed direct-to-metal on an aluminum panel, it is a piece of aviation wall art that locks a century of flight history into a single luminous image.

SYD flight path print — Aurora theme in living-room setting [hotspot:46]SYD flight path print — Aurora theme in office setting [hotspot:55]SYD flight path print — Ember theme in living-room setting [hotspot:46]SYD flight path print — Ember theme in office setting [hotspot:55]SYD flight path print — Nebula theme in living-room setting [hotspot:46]SYD flight path print — Nebula theme in office setting [hotspot:55]SYD flight path print — Solstice theme in living-room setting [hotspot:46]SYD flight path print — Solstice theme in office setting [hotspot:55]SYD flight path print — Sky theme in living-room setting [hotspot:46]SYD flight path print — Sky theme in office setting [hotspot:55]SYD flight path print — Coast theme in living-room setting [hotspot:46]SYD flight path print — Coast theme in office setting [hotspot:55]SYD flight path print — Rose theme in living-room setting [hotspot:46]SYD flight path print — Rose theme in office setting [hotspot:55]SYD flight path print — Iris theme in living-room setting [hotspot:46]SYD flight path print — Iris theme in office setting [hotspot:55]
SYD flight path print — Aurora theme
SYD flight path print — Ember theme
SYD flight path print — Nebula theme
SYD flight path print — Solstice theme
SYD flight path print — Sky theme
SYD flight path print — Coast theme
SYD flight path print — Rose theme
SYD flight path print — Iris theme

Dye-sublimated on aluminum · Float mount hardware included

$119

Made to order in 2–3 daysMade in the USA
Behind the Print

Statistics from the ADS-B flight data visualized in this print.

1,351

Total Flights

416

Unique Aircraft

104

Peak Hour Flights

This dataset covers two days of ADS-B traffic at Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (YSSY), from 1 January to 2 January 2026, captured across 992,833 position points. The period falls on the 106th anniversary of the establishment of the original airfield that would become Sydney Airport. Over those 48 hours, 1,351 flights were recorded: 630 arrivals, 649 departures, and 72 touch-and-goes. A total of 416 unique aircraft were observed, registered across 22 countries, with Australian-registered aircraft accounting for 272 of them. Chinese and US-registered aircraft were the next largest groups at 29 and 23 respectively. Traffic built sharply from near-zero in the early morning hours, with 4:00 AEDT recording no movements at all. Activity accelerated through the morning and peaked at 16:00 AEDT with 104 flights in that single hour. The average across all hours was 28.1 flights per hour. The Sydney to Melbourne corridor was the busiest route by a wide margin, with 165 total movements (78 arrivals, 87 departures). Brisbane followed at 115, then Gold Coast at 74 and Adelaide at 54. Two entries in the top ten, Coonabarabran (26 departures, zero arrivals) and Coonamble (24 departures, zero arrivals), show entirely one-directional traffic over the observation window. Approach directions were led by NNE (138) and SW (103), with departures similarly concentrated on SW (126) and NNE (122). The altitude distribution shows the highest concentration of position reports below 1,000 feet (155,269 points), with a second dense band between 37,000 and 38,000 feet (46,224 points). The average recorded altitude across all points was 16,859 feet. The highest-altitude flight reached 48,425 feet, flown by VH-AP7, a domestic Australian-registered aircraft arriving from an unspecified origin. The longest flight by distance was logged at 6,588.7 nautical miles, associated with a departure toward Al Ain International Airport (OMAL), though its hex code and lack of tail number place it in the unverified category.

Every print includes a QR code linking to the full flight report.

Full Flight Report
Aluminum print showing flight path visualization
Premium Material

Why Aluminum

Our prints are produced on museum-grade aluminum with a high-gloss finish — the choice of professional galleries worldwide.

Dye-Sublimated

Colors infused directly into the aluminum surface for unmatched vibrancy.

Deep Blacks & Vibrant Color

High-gloss finish delivers exceptional contrast and altitude gradients.

Archival Durability

Scratch-resistant, waterproof, and fade-resistant for decades of display.

Modern Float Mount

Included mounting hardware creates a sleek 3/4" float off the wall.

Gallery-Quality Finish

The same premium process used by museums and professional galleries.

About the Airport

Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport traces its origins to January 1920, when an airfield was established at Mascot, a suburb just 8 kilometres south of Sydney's central business district. That modest strip of ground eventually grew into Australia's primary international gateway. The airport is named after Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, the pioneering Australian aviator who made the first transpacific flight from the United States to Australia in 1928.

SYD operates on a constrained site bounded by Botany Bay to the south and dense urban development to the north and west. That geography shapes everything. The airport's parallel north-south runways and a single east-west runway handle traffic across 3 terminals, with the international terminal serving over 40 airlines connecting Sydney to destinations across Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Pacific. Qantas, Australia's flag carrier, maintains its primary hub here. Virgin Australia and a wide range of international carriers also base significant operations at the airport.

The airport's location makes it both essential and contentious. It sits beneath the flight paths of several of Sydney's most densely populated suburbs, and noise management has been a persistent civic and political issue for decades. A curfew restricts scheduled jet operations between 11 pm and 6 am. Plans for a second Sydney airport at Badgerys Creek in Western Sydney — now named Western Sydney International Airport — have been in development for years, though SYD remains the region's dominant commercial hub. With tens of millions of passengers moving through annually, it is the de facto front door to Australia for much of the world.

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