Sydney Airport delays after air traffic controller calls in sick

Thousands of school holiday travellers have been left stranded after two air traffic control staffers called in sick at Sydney Airport yesterday.

Thousands of travellers have been left stranded after an air traffic control staffer called in sick.

Thousands of school holiday travellers have been left stranded after two air traffic control staffers called in sick at Sydney Airport yesterday.

At least 26 outbound domestic flights have been cancelled at the airport, effecting Qantas, Qantas Link, Tiger Air, Jetstar and Virgin passengers.

Further chaos has been caused at regional airports, given planes originating in Sydney have not arrived for their subsequent domestic journeys.

An Airservice Australia spokeswoman said: “We had two unexpected staff illnesses in the Sydney Tower. As safety is our first priority we had to slow down traffic while we worked with the airlines to resolve the issue. We were able to get in extra staff to return to full capacity but unfortunately the impact on services could not be fully recovered.”

At least 26 outbound domestic flights have been cancelled at the airport.

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At least another three flights were delayed.

The federal government’s Airservices Australia confirmed the day’s flight schedule had to be reorganised because a staffer was ill, meaning fewer people were on hand to organise the airport’s massive school-holiday schedule.

Flight operations have returned to normal this afternoon and all inbound flights are due to reach Sydney by curfew.

The daily flight schedule had to be reorganised because the staffer was ill.

Passenger flows were heavier than usual given it was the middle weekend of the October school holidays and the end of school holidays in Victoria.

Airlines were trying to deal with the backlog of passengers by either finding spare seats on later flights or delaying trips until Monday.

Airservices Australia, created in 1995, is responsible for airspace management around the country.

Travellers vented their anger on social media and in many cases it was the airlines feeling their fury over the cancellations.

“First Jetstar cancel my 7am flight on Friday to Sydney without notifying me and then our flight at 4pm today to go back to Melbourne is cancelled with no notification. What a waste of money and points,” Stef wrote.

And Dan wrote,” The reason our Qantas flight was cancelled this evening was because there aren’t enough air traffic controllers. Is this a normal thing?”.

same happened to me. Poor form @Qantas. The least you can do is notify people... not to mention I still have to pay $290 for the hotel I won't be staying at tonight

— Daschwood (@Daschwood) October 7, 2018

Chris Hungerford, 55, said that he and his wife had been “dumped” by their airline because of the delays.

“We are meant to be flying home from Brisbane,” he said.

“It’s just the ignorance and lack of respect from staff that gets me.”

Shannon Baldwin, 26, was flying home to Melbourne with her friends after a hens weekend.

“Our flight was cancelled half an hour before boarding,” she said.

“All we got in return were eight dollar food vouchers to share between 13 of us.”

Steph D’Elia, 18, was also on the hens weekend. She said that she was disgusted with the way the situation had been handled.

“We had already got a text saying that our flight was boarding soon before it was cancelled,” she said.

The same thing happened to me. @Qantas terrible service.

— Daschwood (@Daschwood) October 7, 2018

“Now our airline has put their flights up to $1000 to go to Melbourne.”

Joyce Franks, 51, also said that she had been left in the dark as a result of the chaos.

“I wasn’t given accommodation, and they didn’t even organise the next flight for me,” she said.

“This is third flight this year that has been cancelled for me.”

Qantas issued a statement saying everything was being done to “get customers moving”.

“But the reduced take off and landing rates meant we’ve had to cancel some flights,” the statement said.

“Some customers were moved to flights on Sunday evening but as it’s

school holidays we have limited spare seats so others won’t travel

until Monday.”