Sydney Airport security queues extend outside the terminal

Video footage shows crazy scenes at Sydney Airport with the security line spilling out the terminal door and on to the street as thousands stranded.

Sydney Airport has apologised for this morning’s extreme security delay, with heavy fog and a technical issue blamed.

Video footage shared to Twitter by Sky News’s political editor Andrew Clennell shows lines spilling out of the domestic terminal door, on to the street and as far as the car park as thousands of passengers wait to pass security and board their flight.

“And it goes on and on before you get in [the] terminal,” Clennell said.

He shared another update explaining airport staff were hand-picking those whose flights are before a certain time.

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‘Insane’ footage shows Sydney Airport’s security queue spilling out of the domestic terminal door and as far back as the car park. Picture: Twitter/aclennell

“They just came out for people on ‘flights boarding before 7.20’. At 7.33,” he said.

“Because my flight boards at 8.25, I get to walk past this queue into another queue,” he said while sharing footage of another very long line.

Passengers have described the wait time as “ridiculous” with one woman saying it took her over an hour to pass security only to learn her flight was also delayed.

Sydney Airport said heavy fog and a technical issue were to blame. Picture: Twitter/aclennell

Clennell added his flight was also “unsurprisingly” delayed for an hour.

A Sydney Airport spokesperson told news.com.au it is working with airlines “to get everyone on their way”.

“Heavy fog affected flights earlier this morning, and a technical issue has meant we’re temporarily operating one less security lane than normal in T2 Domestic,” the spokesperson said.

Sky News’s political editor Andrew Clennell shared footage bypassing one line and going to join another due to the timing of his flight. Picture: Twitter/aclennell

Holiday-makers have been experiencing crazy wait times and flight delays over the past few months as airports and airlines around the world try to combat staffing shortages.

In June, Sydney Airport hosted a jobs fair to help plug the worker shortage.

“We are doing everything we can to get people on their way,” chief executive Geoff Culbert said at the time.

And to think this used to be fun #businesstravel Security line begins in the carpark at #sydneyairport this morning #clustefuc* pic.twitter.com/7aYOnZTY6I

— Julia Davenport (@DavenportJulia) July 24, 2022

It comes after Queenstown Airport also erupted into chaos with travellers stranded over the weekend.

Queues ran out the door of the airport as Air New Zealand struggled to clear a backlog of flights, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Some travellers said they had been trying to get home for days, and struggled to find accommodation because the resort town was at capacity.

Air New Zealand has been battling a “perfect storm” of high demand during school holidays, staff sickness because of Covid-19, and weather-related disruptions.

Up to 130 flights were cancelled on Thursday and Friday because of stormy conditions.

The airline warned at the beginning of the July school holidays that higher-than-usual employee sickness and bad weather could cause delays.

Air New Zealand chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said the airline was putting on larger aircraft and adding more flights to help get customers to where they need to be as school holidays drew to a close after a week of disruption and delays.

The airline had been forced to cancel about 20 of its 470-odd flights on Sunday – one of its busiest days of the school holidays.

Originally published as Sydney Airport security queues extend outside the terminal