Adelaide Airport urges passengers to arrive early as school holiday exodus begins

Arrive early, and expect long delays – Adelaide Airport has issued a warning to all travellers as it braces for its single busiest day since the pandemic began.

South Australian domestic travellers are being warned to arrive at least two hours before their flights as airlines brace for end-of-term chaos.

More than 100,000 travellers are expected to stream through the gates of Adelaide Airport in the four days from Friday to Monday, its busiest weekend since before Covid hit.

Airports nationwide have suffered large queues and significant delays with a perfect storm of school holidays, staff shortages, wild weather and a return to pre-pandemic levels of travel.

An airport spokesman said all available resources would be used on Friday and across the school holidays in a bid to reduce delays, but travellers should arrive early.

Travellers should allow two hours before departure for domestic flights and three hours for international.

Severe flooding and heavy rain across NSW have also affected travel leading into the holidays, with three flight cancellations between Sydney and Adelaide this week – two Virgin flights and one Jetstar flight – and a number of minor delays.

Travellers are being urged to arrive early as school holiday chaos hits this weekend. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Naomi Jellicoe

Adelaide Airport is still seeking to replenish the more than 50 per cent of its labour force lost during Covid, with significant labour shortages nationwide.

Last week, Adelaide Adelaide Airport managing director Brenton Cox said staff directly involved with flights had largely returned to pre-pandemic levels but there was still plenty of hiring to be done.

“Our security team has grown by 40 per cent in recent months, but they are still looking to hire and train a further 60 staff as passenger demand continues to grow,” he said.

Mr Cox said contractors and tenants at the airport were also on the lookout for extra staff.

“We estimate businesses at Adelaide Airport will be looking for a further 500 staff across various roles,” he said.

The job opportunities will largely be available in security and retail, but also ground handling, maintenance and engineering.

Airports across the country have been heaving under the weight of winter travellers, with many embarking on their first holiday in years.

Absolutely mental at Sydney airport the queue for Qantas flights is going outside the terminal pic.twitter.com/P60xw1Q8ag

— Cameron (@NausicaaOCE) July 3, 2022

Earlier this week, lines were out the door and down the street at Sydney Airport with delays adding to the shambles.

Qantas and Jetstar carried more than 350,000 people last weekend as school holidays kicked off in the eastern states.

The former will be looking to repair its reputation after a rough few months, recording the highest number of cancelled flights in May and the second worst on-time performance behind Jetstar.

Across Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar, more than 1800 flights were cancelled in the month or 7.1 per cent, well up on the long-term cancellation rate of 2 per cent.

Virgin Australia recorded a 5 per cent cancellation rate and slightly better on-time performance with 65.7 per cent of arrivals landing within 15 minutes of schedule and 64.4 per cent of departures getting away on time.