Disruption at Sydney Airport due to shortage of air traffic controllers has resulted in cancellation and delays to many flights.
A lack of air traffic controllers at Sydney Airport has seen it come to a standstill today, impacting numerous flights, particularly Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia. Due to a lot of sick leave and carer’s leave, they have been forced to spread out arrivals and departures. This has resulted in passengers waiting on the tarmac for hours in the heat, leading to a lot of angry passengers, [web: conversation] The airline industry is facing significant disruption due to Airservices Australia’s inability to provide air traffic controllers.
Airservices Australia advised that they had received numerous sick calls from local air traffic controllers on very short notice and advised airlines to reduce the number of takeoffs and landings. Qantas and Jetstar have cancelled 30 flights and Virgin Australia has resulted in a slow crawl of flights. One passenger had to wait on the tarmac to the Gold Coast for over an hour with a three-month-old baby and had to cool their baby with wet wipes during the delay. The passenger stated to 7NEWS: “I would have liked a heads up before I boarded.”
Sydney Airport stated that the reason for the delays was that Airservices Australia were understaffed, and other operations were functioning as normal. The airline industry also urged passengers to check their airline’s app for updates. As a result of the delays from Sydney Airport, there are delays to flights all across Australia due to cascading delays.
Airlines for Australia chief executive officer Stephen Beckett said the situation at Sydney Airport was “incredibly frustrating”. He added that the staffing issues at airports have been ongoing for a long time, and there is nothing different now compared to the past when the Sydney Airport has experienced flight delays because of staffing shortages.
