Sydney Airport slowdown turns 15-hour flights into 24-hour ordeals

Passengers on two international flights from Los Angeles have had their 15-hour journey turned into 24-hour ordeals after being diverted to Canberra Airport.

American Airlines opted to hold its flight at Canberra Airport for fresh crew to take it on to Sydney later on Monday. Picture: Julian Abbott /X

Two 15-hour flights from Los Angeles to Sydney have turned into 24-hour ordeals for hundreds of international travellers after an Airservices Australia issue forced both services to divert to Canberra.

The American Airlines and United Airlines flights were placed in holding patterns as they approached Sydney Airport on Monday morning, due to a technical issue with the air traffic control landing system.

Concerned they would run out of fuel, the pilots of flights AA73 and UA839 opted to divert to Canberra, where passengers were allowed into the terminal to freshen up and eat.

With flight and cabin crews out of hours, United opted to bus passengers to Sydney – adding three-and-a-half hours to their journey.

American Airlines, however, decided to wait for the arrival of a fresh crew for its Boeing 777 before flying onto Sydney for an estimated 6pm arrival – nine hours later than scheduled, and 24 hours after they left LAX.

An American Airlines Boeing 777 at Canberra Airport after being diverted from Sydney. Picture: Nathan Patrech/X

Domestic flights into Sydney were also caught up in the Airservices issue, which slowed down the rate of arrivals.

Qantas flight QF426 from Melbourne to Sydney became the third flight of the morning diverted to Canberra because of low fuel, but was on its way again within an hour.

Sydney Airport confirmed dozens of other flights were delayed, creating a knock-on effect throughout the network.

Air traffic controllers also had to deal with bad weather in Sydney, and late Monday the instrument landing system issue was yet to be resolved.

An Airservices Australia spokesman said the problem related to the “glide path component of the instrument landing system” for runway 16L, impacting landing capacity.

“The fault does not impact flights taking off from runway 16L or landing on any of Kingsford Smith Airport’s other runways,” he said.

“Our team are working to fix the issue as soon as possible. In the meantime we are working with airlines to manage incoming traffic and minimise delays for passengers.”

Data for December published by Airservices showed 16 per cent of ground delays for flights were directly attributable to the government-funded agency, and 6 per cent of cancellations.

Delays were highest in Sydney and Brisbane, due to “staff availability challenges” that have plagued Airservices since the pandemic.

Canberra Airport does not have a full time Australian Border Force presence due to the fact it only operates three international flights a week, to Fiji, but is able to process overseas passengers if required.

It’s understood the decision is left up to the airlines and on Monday, passengers from the United Airlines flight were cleared before boarded buses to Sydney.

American Airlines’ passengers were kept in the international lounge area while they waited for the new crew to arrive.

Their experience was much improved on a 2014 incident, in which a United Airlines flight that diverted to Canberra was held on the tarmac for eight hours.

Passengers were eventually let off the plane to walk around the tarmac but could not enter the airport because there were no immigration facilities.

The debacle has not been repeated since at Canberra Airport.

Originally published as Sydney Airport slowdown turns 15-hour flights into 24-hour ordeals