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Air traffic control issue grounds flights at Sydney Airport and causes significant delays

FLIGHTS have now resumed but there still remains a massive backlog nationwide. Furious passengers question how this can happen.

Liz Burke and Julia Corderoy
2 min read
September 25, 2017 - 12:39PM
Passengers have been told an air traffic control issue has grounded flights.
Passengers have been told an air traffic control issue has grounded flights.

THE “technical issue” which grounded all flights in and out of Sydney Airport this morning has been resolved, but passengers can still expect travel chaos across the country.

Airservies Australia, the agency that controls air traffic control systems around Australia, has confirmed that the system outage has been addressed and that flights can now resume.

However, passengers have been told to be patient as the bungle will have a major knock-on effect for the entire country.

“The issue has been addressed but the airport is not at normal capacity. We are working hard to clear the backlog of flights,” Airservices Australia spokeswoman Sarah Fulton told AAP.

A spokesperson for Brisbane Airport said the knock-on delays were being felt heavily in Brisbane.

“If one airport sneezes the others will catch the cold because we’re all interconnected,” a Brisbane Airport Corporation spokeswoman told AAP.

“A lot of flights will be impacted because it is one of the busiest routes to and from Brisbane.” Melbourne Airport also confirmed likely delays throughout the day.

It is understood that a power in the traffic systems operations went down with air traffic control having to revert to a manual process for departing flights. But frustrated passengers are not sympathising with the “technical issues”, taking to social media to question how a major aiport can even have such a significant outage.

Passengers are being told to check with their airline for an update on their flight status.

‘NATIONWIDE SYSTEM FAULT’

Passengers who arrived for early flights this morning were told a “nationwide system fault” was preventing all flights from leaving Sydney.

Airservices Australia told news.com.au this morning that the delays were caused by a “technical issue”.

“Airservices has a confirmed technical issue which is affected arriving sand departing aircraft at Sydney Airport,” a spokeswoman for Airservices Australia said in a statement.

“The problem is not fully resolved as yet, however our technicians are currently working to rectify the situation.”

Flights into Sydney were also being affected by the system fault, with passengers in other cities told no flights into Sydney will be leaving airports.

Qantas cancelled two scheduled flights from Melbourne to Sydney this morning, and its 6am flight was still yet to board at 8.30am.

At least 10 flights leaving Brisbane for the NSW capital were also delayed, including flights departing as late as 10.30am.

NSW school holidays begin today, meaning many families could be affected by the delays.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/air-traffic-control-issue-grounds-flights-at-sydney-airport/news-story/a8fe59ab56bfd46d28521accf08c8ede