Qantas CEO Alan Joyce blames airport chaos on out-of-practice travellers

The lengthy queues at Sydney Airport are beginning to shorten after two days of chaos to mark the beginning of the school holidays.

Passengers arriving to fly out of Sydney Airport have been relieved to find lengthy queues that threatened to delay travel for a third day have cleared.

Terminals were packed again this morning with travellers anxious about the hours-long wait to move through check-in and security, but all lines had been cleared by 7.30am.

Although the airport remains busy, queues were moving quickly by mid-morning with most passengers waiting less than 30 minutes.

“Things are moving much more quickly this morning with the lines cleared by 7.30am, which is good,” a Sydney Airport spokesman said.

Colin Tran with sons, Levi, 6, and Mason, 9, who were flying to Brisbane from T2 Domestic Sydney airport. Picture: Jeremy Piper

That didn’t stop passengers arriving early as an extra precaution.

Colin Tran, who was headed to Brisbane with his two sons, arrived two hours ahead of his flight.

“We heard yesterday it was bad so we got here earlier than we would normally, but it’s not too bad,” Mr Tran said.

“It’s not the best start to the school holidays for everyone but it is what it is.”

Melissa Sams (with the pink bag) with her daughters, Olivia, 7, and sister Lucy, 9, and Kristy Peters with Liam, 6, and Aidan, 9.

Melissa Sams, who’s flying to Perth with her friend Kristy Peters and their four children, said they too had allowed extra travel time.

“We’re from Newcastle so we left at 5.30am which was the earliest possible time we could,” Ms Sams said.

“I had heard in the news it was going to be bad so we planned not to have any bags to check in, but there has still been a little bit of a wait.”

Spencer Bignell is flying to Melbourne for his mum’s birthday said he was hoping for the best.

“We had a few friends who flew yesterday and it was a nightmare so we allowed some extra time, but it looks ok today.”

Hundreds of people had started queueing in the early hours of Saturday morning.. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Hundreds of people had started queuing up before dawn on Saturday, wanting to check in for their morning flights.

Angela Cook described the scenes on social media, saying the security line was “out the door” when she arrived at the terminal at 4.30am for a 6am flight.

“No way I’ll make my flight. One line. One security check in line working. That’s just poor planning on (Sydney Airport‘s) part,” she tweeted.

Many other travellers posted photos from where they waited, all showing massive lines and people crammed in the bag check-in area.

“Hell is ... this at 5am,” Darren Saunders wrote.

Sydney Airport has once again been plunged into chaos as passengers pack out terminals. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Yesterday, Sydney Airport bosses ­deployed back office staff to help clear chaotic crowds after hundreds of travellers endured hours-long waits to clear security.

At least one woman ­fainted in the terminal as airport authorities warned of lengthy delays for school holiday travellers.

But it was “tone deaf” comments from Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, blaming travellers for not being “match fit” after being so long locked down, that drew the ire of furious passengers and commentators.

“It was offensive,” said one passenger stuck waiting.

“It was tone deaf at best and quite unbelievable. You could hear people talking about it and no one was happy. It makes a mockery of him talking about how much he cares for the very same customers.”

Sydney Airport has been plunged into chaos for a third straight day, with passengers stuck in snaking queues lashing out at “poor planning”. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Mr Joyce was blasted after including the fact customers were unpractised at travelling as part of his explanation for the chaos.

“First of all, we’re seeing that there’s a high level of ­absenteeism,” he said.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce’s comments angered some travellers. Picture: Damian Shaw

“And that’s because there is the isolation rules related to Covid, both in close contacts and people that have Covid.

“The second complexity is I think 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 and a lot of the security people are new, and they’re going to be cautious as they get up to speed on it.”

Mr Joyce said there will be delays over the Easter period but vowed flights would not be cancelled.

Late on Friday afternoon Mr Joyce sent out a statement “clarifying” his earlier comments.

“Just to be clear, I’m not ‘blaming’ passengers,” he 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.”

Former Qantas chief economist and UNSW academic Dr Tony Webber didn’t buy claims passenger inexperience was to blame.

“It’s most likely a staffing issue which is causing the delay, whether that be staff at the check-in, airport security or other parts of the supply chain,” he said.

“People do not forget how to check in and board a plane.

“Qantas is having difficulties ramping up to pre-Covid levels. It is also surprising that the company has failed to be ready and prepared for a predictable onslaught of passengers coming up to the school holidays.”

Some travellers reported having to wait in queues for up to two hours on Friday morning. Picture: Damian Shaw

The chaos is set to continue as staff shortages and increased demand also saw security contractors offering lucrative overtime to entice workers.

Security staff took hours to process passengers on Friday with lines at both the Qantas and Virgin terminals snaking outside the airport.

The Saturday Telegraph understands airport bosses have moved corporate head office staff to work on the queues and the security contractor has offered overtime pay to try and entice staff.

There’s no end in sight with passengers warned to expect more delays in the coming days as the airport saw 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels, when the average day brought in 150,000 visitors.

The entire @Qantas domestic terminal is full as a bull at @SydneyAirport#SydneyAirport crazy scenes pic.twitter.com/PLs4Ic6g4T

— Peter Deppeler (@Peter_Deppeler) April 7, 2022

Mr Joyce said he went through security himself on Friday morning, however one passenger waiting in line said the executive didn’t have long to wait.

But one passenger who was put out by Mr Joyces comments said: “Here we were, Qantas passengers stuck in a never-ending queue, and he just walks through the middle of us all to the front of the line, without even a blink.”

The Transport Workers Union savaged Mr Joyce’s comments claiming Covid isolation and passengers were to blame, and called on the company to reinstate the workers sacked during the pandemic.

“Rather than risking the health of everyone by scrapping isolation rules, Qantas could reinstate these 2000 workers to fill the gaps in our airports,” national secretary of the TWU Michael Kaine said.

“Qantas pocketed $865 million in JobKeeper and at the same time illegally outsourced its entire ground operations, now the airline doesn’t have enough customer service workers, baggage handlers or ground staff to respond to surging demand.”

Baggage handler Louis, who was working on Friday morning, said the lines were “horrible” and begged passengers not to take it out on staff.

“It was chaotic, we had I believe the most amount of bags we have ever loaded onto a jet … the wet weather made it so much worse,” he said.

Comedian Gabbi Bolt took to social media saying she has “passed out” in line for her flight to the Melbourne Comedy Festival on Friday.

“Bad day to wear trackie dacks,” Bolt said.

“The staff got me some water and I am now seated on the floor out of the queue wondering how I will get back into the queue.”

Ms Bolt was later escorted to her flight by security.

Holiday travellers were battling crowded conditions, with a passenger who arrived an hour early for her domestic flight from Sydney to Tamworth with Virgin on Friday afternoon reporting she feared she won’t make the plane.

Some flights are held back to give passengers time to board.

They just made an announcement that this is the busiest day Sydney airport has had this year so far fml

Security line is stretched into the other terminal bruh

— Mitch on the TL (@mdburner2) April 7, 2022

Mr Joyce said Australia had handled airport crowding “a lot better” than overseas, and pointed to cancelled flights in the US and UK.

“We’re avoiding cancelling flights or very minimum and we’re getting people to their destination. It may be delayed but we are getting them there,” Mr Joyce said.

“And that’s what we believe will happen over Easter but obviously, we need people’s assistance and help and given extra time to go to the airport facilities.”

School holiday travel mayhem

The chaos came just a week before Easter, the first major holiday period since Australia reopened its borders.

Thousands of people were jammed in long queues on Thursday night, trailing from the security line to the check-in desk and out the front door.

The chaos continued into Friday, with crowds filling the airport foyer from as early as 6am.

Peter Deppeler took to Twitter to show crowds filling the airport foyer, saying that while the lines were long, the queues appeared to be moving “fast enough”.

“The entire @Qantas domestic terminal is full as a bull at @SydneyAirport crazy scenes,” said Mr Deppeler.

Around the same time on Friday morning, Michelle Tran said she had missed her flight to Melbourne due to the crowded mayhem.

Frustrated travellers were left queuing for hours in lines that snaked around the foyer and outside. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Damian Shaw

Some travellers reported having to wait in queues for 90 minutes up to two hours.

Tim Prosser was one of the lucky travellers who were able to make their flight on time, after hours of security and check-in line ups, however Mr Prosser said other travellers did not share his luck.

“Very almost missed my flight, others were less fortunate,” Mr Prosser said in a tweet.

Mitch Dale was at the airport on Thursday evening and overheard an announcement being made over the PA system saying it was the “busiest day Sydney airport has had this year”.

Journalism lecturer Sue Stephenson waited in line for two hours and eventually had to be escorted through the queue to get on her flight to Port Macquarie which had started boarding.

James Bing vented his frustration saying the airport was “understaffed and undertrained”’ and could have benefited from more security lines and priority screening lines.

Sydney Airport said via a statement on their social media platforms, “We apologise for the inconvenience. We’re facing a perfect storm at the moment. 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.”

Travellers expressed their anger with this response from Sydney Airport.

“Travellers are inexperienced”? How much experience does it take to stand in a line? Worst excuse I’ve ever heard,” said Twitter user Lorna Markham.

More travellers took to social media on Thursday night and Friday morning to share their view of queues which wrapped around the foyer and spilt out onto the roads beyond Terminals 2 and 3.

Traveller Phillipa Miller said via a tweet “Absolute chaos @SydneyAirport. Queues round and round and nearly out the door. Not happy…..”

Another user, Mike Carlton said in a tweet Sydney Airport at Mascot was “unarguably one of the world’s worst airports,” in his opinion.

Twitter user’s continued to criticise Sydney Airports apparent lack of planning for the volume of passengers, preparing for school holidays.

One user said in a fiery tweet, “Was this a shock to you? You had literally years to plan.

You had months of notice of increased flight demand. You had weeks notice of health current warnings. You had plenty of time to hire more casuals. NO EXCUSES! You don’t discount or repay us for the hassle!”

Twitter user Jasmin Chill said she witnessed chaos at the check in point, for every airline, not just a select few. Ms Chill shared the frustration of other travellers with the apparent lack of preparation from Sydney Airport.

“Somehow @SydneyAirport has yet again failed to anticipate school holidays, with some security processing lanes still closed and queues to the door in both terminals,” said Jasmin in a tweet.

Another traveller experienced delays with luggage collection, waiting over 15 hours for luggage collection.

“It’s 15 hours since our flight from Sydney to Melbourne landed and still no sign of our one piece of luggage. Should be simple,” said the user.

“Can’t blame Covid forever,” said another user.