Airlines warn travellers to brace for more delays as holidays end

Australia’s major airlines are warning travellers of more airport mayhem as families fly home at the end of school holidays.

Australian airlines are gearing up for a hectic weekend at domestic airports as hundreds of thousands of customers fly home from school holidays.

Qantas and Jetstar say they have 350,000 customers boarding flights across Australia over the next four days.

Last week, severe weather in NSW and a spike in Covid and flu cases for operating crew caused flight delays and cancellations for all domestic airlines.

Qantas had 85 per cent of domestic flights depart within an hour of schedule.

“Our on-time performance isn’t where it needs to be, but we’re continuing to make changes,” a Qantas spokesperson said.

People queue at Adelaide airport. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

The airlines are warning that delays will continue over the busy weekend as operations continue to be impacted by crew taking sick leave.

“We thank customers for their patience during what is traditionally a very busy time and thank our people for their hard work over these school holidays and beyond,” a Qantas spokesman said.

Qantas responded to claims this week from the aircraft engineers union that flight cancellations were as a result of staff shortages, poor management and outsourcing ground-handling staff.

“This is not just a Qantas issue,” the spokesman said.

“This is affecting other airlines, airports and air traffic control across Australia and around the world.”

This week, London’s Heathrow Airport put a cap on passengers travelling through the airport and asked airlines to stop selling seats over the European summer.

Lengthy delays continued for travellers in Sydney last weekend. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Qantas’ mishandled bag rate is back to less than one in a hundred, close to what it was pre-pandemic.

The airline made the decision 18 months ago to outsource ground handling but said it was business as usual during the busy Easter 2021 holidays.

“We had already outsourced all of our ground handling and operated nearly as much capacity as we did this year, yet we had no operational issues,” the spokesman said.

“We have been using these ground-handling suppliers in 55 of the 65 airports we fly to for a long time, in some cases over a decade.”

Ground-handling suppliers have increased staff levels by 15 per cent since the school holidays and more staff are being rostered on standby.

Qantas have also hired hundreds of additional contact centre staff to reduce call wait times to below pre-Covid levels.