Third time (un) lucky: chaos at Sydney Airport jeopardises school holiday travel plans

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has blamed passengers as lines of anxious travellers choked Sydney Airport again today — but an expert has suggested key changes could easily thin the queues.

Chaos has erupted at Sydney Airport again this morning, but an airline industry expert has suggested simple changes to thin out the queues.

The excitement of the first week of school holidays has been quashed as lengthy lines of anxious passengers and young families choked domestic terminals and front foyers of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport in Mascot.

Flight delays and slow check-ins are being threatened again for the third time since the weekend, launching a slow take off into the start of the week.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce sang the same tune this morning when he told the public again that inexperienced passengers were contributing to the problem.

This time round, he softened the blow to airline customers by saying it was an issue shared by all people in the travel biz lately.

“Passengers are rusty in travelling,” he told ABC News Breakfast.

Today: Queues form again at the domestic terminal. Picture: Richard Yetsenga/Twitter

“I just came back from a trip from the United States. I left my passport in my hotel safe.

“One of my colleagues left her passport on a British Airways flight.

“Another colleague last week thought that the gate number was her seat number and got them confused.”

On the Today show, Mr Joyce showed a bit more compassion for eager travellers.

“It’s a bit controversial but we’re all rusty,” he said.

Friday: chaos inside the T2 departures at Sydney Airport. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

On Friday and Saturday, hundreds of holiday-hungry passengers queued up to check in at Sydney Airport for their morning flights before the sun had even come up.

At the time, Mr Joyce blamed passengers for causing the long queues.

“I went through the airport on Wednesday and people forget they need to take out their laptops and they need to take out their aerosols,” he said at a press conference on Friday.

“So that is taking longer to get through the queue.”

Saturday: Busy scenes at the T2 Domestic terminal. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Issues, such as staffing challenges, are being blamed for causing congestion on Monday, but staff said crowds were easing, and the situation was not as bad as Friday.

Sydney Airport has however urged passengers to be wary of expected lengthy delays leading up to the long weekend.

“It’s going to be busy again leading up to the Easter and ANZAC Day weekends,” a spokesman told The Daily Telegraph.

“People should prepare by coming to the airport at least two hours earlier before their flight.”

Today: Long queues at Sydney Airport's T2 Domestic Terminal this morning. Picture: Julian Andrews

CEO Aaron Hornlimann of Elenium, which is a company which builds self-service systems in Victoria for the aviation industry, said there’s several areas in a passenger’s journey that can be automated to alleviate pressure off terminal staff.

He argued that the paperwork regarding vaccinations and Covid-19 requirements to travel was also making processes slower and that the government has had time to make things easier.

“Checking in and dropping bags can be done without human intervention, which removes the reliance on staff, whilst providing a faster passenger experience,” Mr Hornlimann said.

“It’s hard to watch so many flights being cancelled or delayed when people are ready to fly again. Many airlines and airports have been hoping Covid will go away, but the biggest risk for airlines and airports when travel restrictions lifted was always going to be the risk of staff not being able to work due to Covid.

“Unfortunately, now we have a ‘perfect storm’ of many people having left the industry during the global pandemic with those who are left, not being able to work. Staff who are available, such as pilots, the in-flight crew and baggage handlers can’t just be trained overnight.”