Crew shortages, runway issues blamed for fresh Sydney airport chaos as 16 more flights cancelled

As many as 200 domestic flights from a major airport have been canned or delayed in a chaotic start to the winter break.

Chaos at Sydney airport has continued amid inclement weather and an influx in travellers over the NSW school holidays, with as many as 200 domestic flights being cancelled over just a few days.

Long queues stretched out the door to the airport’s domestic departures terminal on Tuesday, as airlines including Qantas and Virgin attempted to clear their “backlog”.

A knock-on from the weekend’s travel chaos has resulted in fresh delays on Monday and Tuesday alongside crew shortages and poor weather conditions, with as many as 40 flights being scuttled.

Seven flights have been cancelled so far on Tuesday morning.

NCA NewsWire understands crew unavailability led to five Virgin Australia return flights alone being cancelled.

A Virgin Australia spokesman said “operational reasons” were to blame.

“We apologise to anyone impacted by delayed or cancelled services and we continue to work hard to ensure our guests reach their destinations,” the spokesman said.

“We continue to communicate with guests whose flights are disrupted and ensure they are accommodated on the next available services.”

As many as 200 domestic flights were cancelled over just a few days at Sydney airport. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Impacted travellers were alerted of the cancellations at 4am and automatically moved to the next available service.

It is understood passengers could request travel credits if suitable flights were not found.

Thick fog had not impacted flights on Tuesday with renewed delays reportedly impacting Virgin Australia, whose passengers told the Today show they had waited 30 hours as a result of cancellations.

Passengers on numerous airlines took to social media on Tuesday to vent their frustrations with continued flight cancellations and delays at the country’s busiest international terminal.

In a tweet to Virgin Australia, Beth Streten said she’d “never had a worse experience”.

“We were meant to fly my family to Hobart for a longed-for holiday,” she said.

“After a last minute cancellation and long waits, another rescheduled flight tomorrow. I’ve got no confidence they’ll get us there.”

Partner Jeremy Streten likewise wrote two flights to Hobart had been cancelled in as many days.

“Firstly from Brisbane and now from Sydney,” he said.

“Whatever the reason is not good enough and you (Virgin Australia) have a lot of very unhappy customers.”

Long queues stretched out the door to the airport’s domestic departure’s terminal on Tuesday. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Qantas wasn’t spared customers’ frustrations late on Monday either.

Madison Wales said her flight had been delayed six hours, causing her to miss her onward train.

“Not happy – my partner is very tall and two exit rows are available on the seat map but coming up as ‘unavailable’ when we try to select them. Is there anything you can do for us to help?” she added.

At least six outgoing domestic flights had been cancelled since 6am on Tuesday, according to the Sydney airport website, with flights scuttled to destinations such as Perth, Melbourne, and Orange.

A further 10 inbound flights had been cancelled over the same timeframe, with only a single international flight from Denpasar in Indonesia being impacted, according to Sydney airport.

Brisbane airport, which had undergone urgent repairs, was also the scene on Monday of airline chaos, with the Today show reporting as many as 30 inbound and outbound flights cancelled.