Delays at airport following system outage, storm flow-on and holiday
The Friday before Christmas is one of the busiest days for airports, but the flow-on effect from Thursday’s storms pushed Sydney Airport into further chaos.
Delays were made worse by a system outage that also impacted Melbourne and Brisbane airports.
It is understood an Australian Border Force system that processes passports was down for about 20 minutes on Friday morning. The system has now been restored.
Flip Prior was travelling from Sydney to Emerald in Queensland, she said in a tweet that there was "complete chaos in the Virgin terminal".
She told the Herald that she had checked in in advance, but "lines were snaking outside the terminal" when she arrived.
"I let one woman cut in when she waited outside pointlessly in a queue for half an hour only for [some] official to come out and misdirect them to another line inside.
"Everyone is looking a bit bored and irritated."
Brigid Andersen was due to catch a 9am flight to Brisbane on Friday but, when she arrived at the airport, the line "was out the door".
After lining up for an hour, she found out her flight was overbooked and after another two hours at the service desk, was finally rebooked on an 11am flight.
"It was the best and worst of humanity. I saw people in tears, there were people pushing in and a very understaffed desk", Ms Andersen said.
Virgin Australia is urging Sydney passengers to arrive at the airport 2½ hours before departure, given how busy the airport is.
The delays were to be expected given Thursday’s storm and the time of the year, a Sydney Airport spokeswoman said.
As Thursday night's storm raged on, Sydney Airport was allowed to operate longer than the 11pm curfew to clear the backlog of flights.
Sydney Airport is urging passengers to check with their airlines to receive flight status updates.
On Friday, about 70,000 Jetstar passengers Australia-wide are expected to travel. In comparison, only 50,000 passengers will travel on Christmas Day, a Jetstar spokeswoman said.
Thousands of Jetstar passengers’ flights were cancelled due to Thursday's dangerous storms. Many passengers were booked on the next available flight.
But, as 90 per cent of Friday’s flights are full, some passengers were forced to find seats on alternate airlines to get to their destinations.
The Australian Border Force has been contacted for comment.