On 11 March 2026, Anytime Fitness opens Australia’s first airport gym at Sydney Airport, installing a full 24/7 training facility inside the country’s busiest travel hub. Located landside at T1 International the club will serve more than 40 million travellers a year along with around 30,000 airport staff. Anytime has been expanding lately and this is a very clever new direction.
The concept is simple and, frankly, overdue. Long-haul travel wrecks the body. Circulation slows, hips tighten, lower backs stiffen and sleep goes sideways. For men who train consistently, ten hours in a seat is regression.
Australia’s First Airport Gym
The new two-level, 300-square-metre facility is not a token treadmill tucked behind a coffee cart. It is a full club fitted with premium Life Fitness and Hammer Strength equipment, open functional training zones and lifting platforms, plus showers designed for people on tight schedules. Early departures, late arrivals and shift workers are covered with 24-hour access.
To support the launch, Anytime Fitness has created three “Fit to Fly” routines aimed directly at the realities of air travel. The pre-flight session focuses on circulation and joint prep, using movements such as Goblet Squats and Romanian Deadlifts to prime the body without draining it. The mid-flight menu shifts to seat-based mobility work for the neck, shoulders, spine and hips, giving travellers a practical way to reduce stiffness in the air. The post-flight reset emphasises mobility and activation, including hip rotations and leg press variations, to help restore movement after landing.
The Rationale Behind the Gym
Ben Richards, National Fitness and Member Experience Manager, says the routines were designed to be low impact but effective. Travelling, particularly long-haul, leads to stiffness and reduced mobility, and the goal was to target the muscle groups that support circulation and joint stability so people arrive feeling better than when they boarded.
From a business standpoint, it is a smart play. Sydney Airport is effectively a city that never sleeps. Airline crew operate on fragmented schedules. Airport staff work physically demanding shifts. Travellers are increasingly health-conscious and time-poor. A gym in that environment is not a gimmick.
Anytime Fitness already operates more than 600 clubs across Australia and more than 5,500 globally, with reciprocal access for members. Embedding a club inside an international terminal extends that footprint into transit itself.
For regular flyers, this changes the pre-flight equation. Instead of killing time at the gate, you can move. Instead of landing stiff and foggy, you can reset. It might be the first airport gym in Australia. But it certainly will not be the last.
