Sydney Airport workers exempted from COVID rule after passenger chaos

The NSW government has stepped in to exempt aviation workers from close COVID-19 contact rules in a bid to relieve pressure on Sydney Airport over the Easter holidays as passengers on Saturday endured a third day of long queues.

Amid a critical shortage of security screening staff and other workers, NSW Health authorities signed an order to include airport workers on a list of occupations exempt from close contact rules.

Domestic passengers endure long queues at Sydney Airport early on Saturday afternoon.Credit: James Alcock

NSW Health said “critical air transportation workers” identified as household contacts would now be allowed to return to work if they had no COVID-19 symptoms.

“The self-isolation exemption applies to people providing air transport services whose absence would pose a high risk of disruption as determined by their employer, such as pilots, baggage handlers flight attendants, security staff,” it said.

The department said those workers would be given an exemption to the seven-day self-isolate rule if they were a close contact and remained symptom-free.

“They must travel directly from their home to and from work, and must wear a mask in the workplace at all times except when eating or drinking. They must also undergo frequent rapid antigen testing for seven days,” it said.

Passengers queue at the domestic terminals on Saturday.Credit: James Alcock

However, any worker who tested positive or developed symptoms of COVID-19 would need to self-isolate at home.

While the new order will reduce some pressure, Sydney Airport warned it expected to be busy throughout the school holiday period. Passenger numbers should peak over the Easter and Anzac Day weekends and in some cases reach 90 per cent of pre-COVID passenger levels.

For Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia, the Easter weekend will be the busiest since before the pandemic.

Travellers were warned to arrive two hours before domestic flights as they faced congestion at Australia’s busiest airport on Saturday, as the Easter school holidays began and an influx of people flew to Melbourne for the grand prix.

Sydney Airport’s terminal two at 5am on Saturday.Credit: Twitter via Dr Darren Saunders

Hundreds of travellers were queuing as early as 5am on Saturday to check in at Jetstar’s domestic terminal, as Qantas and its budget offshoot prepare to operate at 110 per cent pre-pandemic domestic capacity for Easter.

The two airlines expect to fly about 500,000 passengers between next Thursday and Easter Monday.

Passenger Darren Saunders said half of the security lanes were closed at T2, to which Sydney Airport responded on its Twitter account saying COVID-19 close contact rules were “making it hard to fill shifts and staff the airport. We appreciate your patience”.

Later on Saturday morning, passenger John Sutherland said he was able to get through security at terminal two within 20 minutes despite the congestion. “Very crowded but moving well,” he wrote.

Qantas’ terminal three was busy early on Saturday morning, but by mid-morning an image shared with the Herald showed a largely empty terminal with no queues.

“We are working around the clock to resolve these issues and have teams in the terminals bringing passengers forward in order of priority,” a Sydney Airport spokesperson said.

“We’re anticipating it will busy right through the school holiday period and peak over the Easter and Anzac Day weekends.”

Melbourne Airport has warned travellers to brace themselves for longer wait times and arrive early to flights over the Easter holidays.

Around 1.4 million people are expected to fly in and out of Melbourne over the next 2½ weeks.

Melbourne’s chief of aviation Lorie Argus said travellers should arrive two hours before a domestic flight and at least three before an international flight as processing times will be longer than usual.

“We are thrilled to be welcoming so many people through Melbourne Airport, but this means travellers need to plan ahead to avoid arriving at the airport at the last minute,” she said.

On Friday, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce suggested the Sydney bottleneck was in part due to passengers who were not “match fit” after two years grounded.

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.”

Sydney Airport has encouraged passengers to arrive two hours ahead of their flight, instead of the usual one hour, for the busy school holiday period.

The 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.

Certis has blamed labour shortages and COVID-19 close contact rules, but has said its focus is on “building up our team to ensure smooth check-in and security operations”.

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