‘Recovery period’ to be implemented at busy Aussie airport after major disruptions

Travellers left stranded following severe storms have been thrown a lifeline, with a change to the rules for Australia’s busiest airport.

Travellers left stranded at Sydney airport after severe storms and other major disruptions have been thrown a lifeline, with a “recovery period” to be implemented to ensure more people sleep in their own homes than in airport hotels.

Transport Minister Catherine King on Wednesday announced a suite of measures to improve the busy airport, including audits on slot hoarding and a better system to deal with the after-effects of major disruptions.

Airlines will face penalties if they cancel flights without valid reasons and could lose their slots, as part of a broader aim at helping smaller airlines better compete out of the country’s largest airport.

The ‘recovery period’ will allow more planes to takeoff and land following a disruptive weather event at Sydney airport. Picture NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

A two-hour grace period allowing for 85 takeoffs and landings per hour will also be rolled out in the wake of disruptive weather.

As recently as Monday, dozens of flights were delayed or cancelled after thunderstorms hit the airport, in-part due to the current tight cap of 80 movements an hour regardless of disruptions.

The “recovery period” will not bite into the airport’s overnight curfew.

“What it does allow for is when those significant weather events have occurred, that there is a catch-up period allowed where the cap is lifted … to be able to ensure that we don’t have what we had happen on Monday – with numbers of domestic flights cancelled, people not really able to get to their destinations, not able to get home or having to spend nights in hotels when they could be with their families,” Ms King said.

Australian Airports Association chief executive James Goodwin welcomed the announcement, saying passengers would be the real winners.

“Recovery periods will also help reduce ‘knock-on’ delays to the national aviation network when Sydney Airport’s runways are disrupted. They will also ensure connectivity into Sydney for regional communities,” Mr Goodwin said.

The government will also crack down on airlines who cancel flights without a valid reason. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Ms King also announced a crackdown on airlines slot hoarding, by ramping up transparency around how slots are allocated and demanding valid explanations for cancellations and significant delays.

Slot hoarding occurs when airlines schedule more flights than they intend to run, and strategically cancel services while hanging on to slots.

Qantas Group and Virgin have both denied misusing slots, but independent audits will now “detect and crack down on anti-competitive behaviour”, with the first to be carried out this year.

Ms King said the long-awaited reforms were aimed at improving the number of cancelled and late flights, which have a domino effect on the country’s entire air network.

“If Sydney airport sneezes, the entire (network) catches a cold,” she said.

“It’s certainly a signal to the airlines that the slots are not their property. They are the Australian travelling public’s property.”

Mr Goodwin said the reforms were “sensible and practical”.

“The reforms will improve competition between airlines, with better availability of slots attracting more airlines and delivering better results for passengers flying in and out of Sydney,” he said.

Ms King ruled out making any changes to the airport’s strict curfew, saying the government had to strike a balance between “improving the way travel occurs at Sydney airport, and making sure we continue to protect those communities under the flight paths”.