Sydney’s storms deliver flight chaos with mass cancellations and delays

Wild weather has already caused 100 flight cancellations and delays of up to four hours for Friday flyers.

Sydney Airport is facing further disruption on Friday with more bad weather on the way. Picture John Grainger

Sydney’s wild weather has caused chaos for air travellers, with 100 domestic flights cancelled in and out of Sydney Airport on Friday.

The disruption continued throughout the day, with Airservices moving to single runway operations at 5pm due to strong easterly winds, restricting aircraft movements to about 30 an hour.

Other airports experienced a knock-on effect, with another dozen flights cancelled in and out of Brisbane and a similar number in Melbourne.

With the expectation Sydney’s runways would be restricted, airlines raced to rearrange schedules, to the reduce the impact of the adverse weather conditions.

“We have proactively communicated with impacted guests and we encourage anyone flying today to monitor their flight information closely,” said a Virgin Australia spokesman.

Delays of up to four hours had been experienced, with the average delay close to 90 minutes.

Qantas also saw multiple delays and numerous cancellations but advised that any passenger booked on flights into or out of Sydney on Friday was able to be accommodated.

“We thank customers in advance for their patience,” said a spokeswoman.

Travellers were being contacted by airlines to keep them across flight changes and delays, and Sydney Airport urged people driving to the terminals to take extra care on wet roads.

An Airservices spokeswoman said the runway restrictions were “purely weather-related to safeguard the travelling public”.

“This adheres to our International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) safety regulations for runway usage amid inclement weather,” said the spokeswoman.

“Airborne and ground delays are expected.”