The flight paths for Western Sydney Airport have not been determined yet, Graham Millett, the CEO of Western Sydney Airport Corporation, told a Blaxland Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Wednesday.
Mr Millett was responding to a question from Macquarie MP Susan Templeman about a Seven News story which named Katoomba and Penrith among suburbs potentially affected by airport noise in initial designs.
"As soon as I can find out [about the flight paths] the better," Mr Millett said.
"I looked at what Channel Seven reported with much interest and surprise."
He said they were in the planning stage, and the flight paths would go out for public comment at the end of 2021.
In speaking with the Gazette later, he said: "Flight paths haven't been developed in any way at this stage.
"They look at it from a safety perspective, they look at it from an efficiency perspective, they look at it from a capacity perspective and last but not least from an impact on the region's perspective."
But he wouldn't rule out flight paths over the Blue Mountains.
"I don't think there's been enough work to make any sort of predictions about the flight paths," Mr Millett said.
The Blue Mountains world heritage listing would be unaffected by the airport, he said.
"All of the analysis that's been done by a number of people, any impacts on the world heritage area are nil," Mr Millett said.
He said the airport would have a number of socio-economic benefits for the Blue Mountains and western Sydney.
"I think what you will see there is an uplift in terms of the number of jobs available, but I think more importantly the types of jobs that are available," Mr Millett said.
"What we are going to see now is a greater shift towards jobs that are higher value, some people use the term white collar, I don't necessarily agree with that, but jobs that are higher value jobs. The salary/remuneration will be higher with those sorts of jobs, they will require a higher skill set so what it will mean is the talent will be even more in this part of the world and you will see the region become more livable.
"So it will become a third city ... but we have to get all the infrastructure right to do that. So we've got to learn from our mistakes overseas and other Australian cities."
During construction, there's a 30 per cent minimum target of western Sydney and Blue Mountains jobs, and then 50 per cent when the airport opens in 2026.
Security was tight at the breakfast meeting, due to two protesters from the Residents Against Western Sydney Airport (RAWSA) outside the meeting place with signs denouncing the airport. Police, including the riot squad were called, but their presence was soon scaled back as the meeting started.
Students from Blue Mountains Grammar and Blaxland High also attended the meeting. A Grammar student asked how they were going to get fuel to the airport and Mr Millett said their preference was to install a pipeline.
The airport land area will be twice the size of Sydney Airport, and will have the second longest runway in Australia - behind Sydney Airport - to accommodate the massive 777X plane to be released next year.
"WSA will rival Hong Kong and some of the largest airports in the world," Mr Millett said.
The 24-hour airport will process domestic and international passengers, as well as freight.
He acknowledged that roads around the area would need to be improved to handle the traffic, and said rail to the airport would be ready from day one.
Another person asked if there would be an additional rail charge like is applied from Central Station to Sydney Airport.
"There will no private rail cost like associated with Sydney Airport," Mr Millett said.
"We are not allowed to charge a station charge."
Commenting on the Western Sydney Airport, RAWSA president Jenny Dollin later said: “Residents in the Blue Mountains have a right to know how a second Sydney airport at the foot of the mountains will affect them but the Morrison Government refuses to show us the flight paths."
