‘I’m not blaming them’: Qantas CEO walks back criticism of passengers for Sydney Airport delays

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has walked back his criticism of passengers for contributing to the mass delays at Sydney Airport, amid a critical shortage of security screening staff during one of the busiest ever Easter school holiday periods.

Thousands of people were trapped in long queues at the airport on Friday, as domestic travellers headed interstate for the school holidays and to the Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Chaos inside Terminal 2 at Sydney Airport.Credit: Janie Barrett

Mr Joyce angered many passengers on Friday by claiming “our customers are not match fit”.

“I went through the airports on Wednesday and people forget they need to take out their laptops, they have to take out their aerosols,” he said. “And a lot of the security people are new, and they're going to be cautious as they get up to speed on [the screening process]. So that is taking longer to get through the queue.”

Late on Friday afternoon the Qantas boss issued new comments via a senior media liaison.

“Just to be clear, I’m not ‘blaming’ passengers,” Mr Joyce said. “Of course it’s not their fault. I was asked what the factors were and why queues are so long at airports. And I explained the multiple reasons.”

Jackie Joukhador is worried her daughter Grace will miss out on competing in the national dragon boat championships if they don’t get their flight.Credit: Janie Barrett

Mr Joyce also blamed the maligned COVID close-contact rules for causing a “high level of absenteeism” of up to 18 per cent.

Sydney Airport apologised to travellers on Thursday night when footage emerged of long, snaking queues inside and outside both domestic terminals. The airport continues to blame a multitude of factors, including “inexperienced” passengers who are slowing down the security screening process.

But on Friday morning, three of eight security lanes at Terminal 2 were closed, causing a major pinch point for passengers with a backlog of passengers snaked in a long queue that spilled outside into the rain.

Jackie Joukhador arrived at the airport at 12.30pm for a 3pm Jetstar flight to Adelaide with her daughter, Grace. Half an hour later she was still queued on the footpath in the rain – and unimpressed about being blamed for the delays.

Shuttered security lanes during peak hour at Sydney Airport are causing a major bottleneck for passengers. Credit: Janie Barrett

“To have Joyce blaming the customer, I find it offensive, to be honest,” she said. “How is it the customer’s fault? We’ve all travelled. We know what the process is.

“That’s basically saying every single person flying is an idiot – there’s always a few slow people, but the majority of people know what they’re doing.”

Sydney Airport said the security company, Certis Security Australia, was still rebuilding its workforce after a long period of minimal flights during the pandemic.

Certis, a Singaporean company, is trying to recruit multiple “aviation screening officers” at the airport.

“No security licence required,” one job advertisement says. Successful applicants are promised 160 hours’ of paid training with the company sponsoring the mandatory Certificate II in Transport Security and Protection course.

A Certis spokeswoman blamed labour shortages and the close contact rules, but said the company remains committed to providing “a safe and enjoyable experience to travellers”.

“Our priority is ensuring public safety for everyone attending Sydney Airport. With visitors and travellers returning in large volumes, our focus is on building up our team to ensure smooth check-in and security operations in the most efficient manner,” the spokeswoman said.

The United Workers Union, which represents airport security staff, said the situation was “a catastrophe”.

“It's absolutely no surprise either,” spokesman Damien Davie said. “They’ve had plenty of notice that flights would come back on board. Everyone knew it would be busy.”

Qantas and Jetstar are operating at 110 per cent of pre-COVID domestic capacity for the Easter period, in one of the busiest Easters the airline has ever had.

Sydney Airport chief Geoff Culbert said the airport is “facing a perfect storm".

“Traffic numbers are picking up, travellers are inexperienced after two years of not travelling, and the close-contact rules are making it hard to fill shifts and staff the airport,” he said.

The airport is advising people to arrive two hours before their flights, which is double the usual advice of one hour.

Greg Hay, the airport’s general manager of operations, said: “We’ve also noticed people are a little out of practice with security protocols, for example, not taking laptops and aerosols out of their bags at screening points, which is contributing to the queues.”

The Easter school holiday period is traditionally one of the busiest times for airports and airlines, which have operated well below full capacity in the past two years due to COVID restrictions.

The Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne this weekend is adding to the elevated passenger numbers. At 11am on Friday, the cheapest flight to Melbourne was $409. For Saturday, all except one flight was more than $300.

The average cheapest Sydney-Melbourne airfare in March was $154. The cheapest Sydney-Melbourne flight next Friday is $179 and Easter Saturday’s cheapest fare is $80.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the airline had added extra staff to conduct “queue combing”, a process of bringing people forward from the back of the line for flights departing soon.

Virgin Australia said the "sudden increase in travellers and workforce challenges related to the pandemic" were causing delays and reiterated that passengers should arrive two hours before their flights.

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