Horror run for air travel continues with strong winds reducing Sydney Airport to single runway ops

Horror run for air travellers continues with strong winds reducing Sydney Airport to single runway operations again as thousands prepare to travel over the school holidays.

The horror run for air travellers continued on Friday when strong winds reduced Sydney Airport operations to a single runway.

Just before 1pm, Airservices Australia announced air traffic controllers were enacting single runway operations as a safety precaution given the gusty west-north-westerlies.

Bureau of Meteorology data showed the strongest winds were being recorded at 22kts, above the 20kt “trigger” for runway restrictions in Sydney.

An Airservices spokeswoman said the policy adhered to International Civil Aviation Organisation safety regulations for runway usage in crosswinds.

“This decision is purely weather and safety-related to safeguard the travelling public,” she said.

Sydney Airport was not expecting any significant operational issues as a result of the move to a single runway, and was hopeful the winds would ease by the late afternoon peak period.

Typically when the airport moved to a single runway, dozens of flights were delayed or cancelled due to the slowdown in arrivals and departures.

Across the last weekend, single runway operations caused extensive chaos at Sydney and around the rest of the country as airlines were forced to overhaul schedules and reallocate passengers.

On Friday afternoon Qantas and Virgin Australia were monitoring the situation.

With strong winds forecast for Friday, Virgin Australia pre-emptively cancelled three return flights Thursday night to give passengers as much notice as possible.

No further changes were expected provided the airport returned to dual runway operations by early evening.

Qantas indicated passengers would be informed if flight changes were necessary.

Crew sickness caused ten Virgin Australia flights to be cancelled on Tuesday, and then mechanical issues and weather saw a planeload of Jetstar passengers forced to spend Tuesday night in Whitsundays Airport.

On Thursday, international travellers faced long delays for check-in at Melbourne and Brisbane Airports when an Australian Border Force IT system failed.

The advanced passenger processing system was up and running again on Friday morning, which allowed for much faster international check-in.