‘We get so close to the brink’: The show taking viewers inside Australia’s busiest airport

Frequent flyer Susie Youssef, who commutes home to Sydney every Friday night after recording The Project in Melbourne, doesn’t like to think too much about what goes on behind the scenes of aviation. “When we’re in the air, I get emotional each time and I think, ‘If I did die today, I would deserve it. I’m defying the laws of physics. Like, this is a lot!’”

Twice, she has sat next to the same woman who disembarked before take-off. “The staff were incredible. They talked through how often they flew and tried to make her comfortable, but she wasn’t able to do it. I know a lot of people hate flying and my heart goes out to them.”

Comedian Susie Youssef narrates the docu-series Airport 24/7, which is filmed at Melbourne Airport.

As narrator of Ten’s Airport 24/7, a docuseries filmed at Melbourne Airport, which is Australia’s busiest, having moved 35 million people last year, Youssef was forced to confront her fears.

“Now, when I’m not catastrophising in my own head, I look around the airport and I notice more,” she says. “I see real humans working there and I think, ‘Gosh, there is a whole lot that goes on here that could be terrifying.’ They continue with that possibility every day and somehow they manage to keep it all moving.”

In the series, produced by ITV Studios Australia, which also made Inside Sydney Airport for SBS, we are introduced to customer service personnel, baggage handlers, security teams, maintenance workers, customs officers and emergency responders, all tackling problems big and small (a power outage, suspicious luggage, security threats, and even escaped kangaroos bouncing across the tarmac). In the tower, we meet air traffic controller Melissa Lindsay, who is one of 2 per cent of the population with the concentration and rapid decision-making skills required for the role.

Traffic controller Melissa Lindsay calls the shots at Melbourne Airport. 

“We like using our heads,” says Lindsay. “You switch into, ‘I’m working now and nothing else really matters’. And I think that’s a real trait of an air traffic controller. You just lock in. As someone that has taught air traffic control, you get people that, on paper, you think will be brilliant. They have grown up loving aviation. They maybe have done a pilot’s course, but they just can’t do the job.”

Over her 15 years in the field, the former VFL player has seen more women enter the profession.

“Women, definitely, are still outnumbered,” says Lindsay. “But at the same time, in Melbourne Tower, we have shifts now where it’s entirely women. And I think that’s really cool.”

“Decision fatigue” can be an occupational side effect, as can a lack of patience with anyone who doesn’t give their all to the work.

“You expect a high standard from every aspect of your life because you have to perform at a high standard all the time,” says Lindsay. “So I find bad customer service infuriating. Because I can’t go into work and do half my job … You arrive at the airport and see the passenger numbers and there are a lot of people on every single flight. Every decision we make impacts them.”

Fortunately, she didn’t find the television crew an intrusion.

“It’s nice to let the passengers know about us without just hearing that we’re delaying their flight,” says Lindsay. “In the media, we’re only really shown when things are going wrong for the consumer. So it’s nice to let the cameras in to see our day-to-day … And it was fun showing visitors what we do in the coolest office in Melbourne.”

For Youssef, learning more about flying soothed her nerves.

“It’s lovely to see the stories of the people who work at the airport who you’d probably pass quite quickly when you’re there,” she says. “The calculations that have to be done and the risk assessment – it’s extraordinary. If you don’t think about it, you take it all for granted. If a flight is late, you roll your eyes and huff and puff. In this series, we get so close to the brink of something horrific so many times and somehow, they manage to pull it back from the edge.”

Airport 24/7 premieres on Thursday, June 5 at 7.30pm on Ten.

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