Airports across Australia hit by border force outage, causing passenger chaos

Airports across Australia were thrown into chaos after a mass outage.

Airports across Australia were thrown into chaos this morning after Australian Border Force security systems experienced a mass outage.

Travellers at Sydney Airport faced delays of up to one hour while Perth Airport battled to get systems up and running before international flights were due to start. Queue times increased at Melbourne Airport but flight schedules were not affected.

The Australian Border Force has apologised to travellers whose overseas trips were delayed by system outages that affected airports across Australia.

An ABF spokesperson said systems were now up and running and staff were working hard to minimise delays.

“Australian Border Force staff are working hard to minimise earlier delays caused by an earlier outage,” ABF said in a statement.

“All issues have now been rectified. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused travellers.”

The Australian understands queues at Sydney Airport had cleared by around 10.30am this morning.

A Sydney Airport spokeswoman said the majority of flights were able to leave on time.

“Queues this morning at T1 International were due to a national Border Force processing issue, which has been resolved,” she said. “The majority of international flights departed on time.”

Our staff are working hard to minimise earlier delays caused by an outage. All issues have now been rectified. We appreciate the patience of passengers at this time and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. pic.twitter.com/lOIU36J5Zp

— ABF (@AusBorderForce) July 15, 2019

The Australian understands the issue was with the ABF’s E-Gates. The smart gates, which read biometric passports also known as ePassports, were down. Customers with ePassports were instead going through gates manned by airport staff.

Brisbane International Airport was also affected by the outage. Darwin’s first international flight today is tonight so it was unclear if the airport was affected.

Adelaide International Airport was not affected.

The start of the queue to get into international departures, we are all wondering if 2 hr early is enough. #sydneyairport pic.twitter.com/E64adpC6fj

— Douglas Abdiel (@dougabdiel) July 14, 2019

Holy cow the line to go to security/boarding at Sydney airport go all the way around the terminal it's so crazy 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 I never saw that before...

— Ten🍀C96 1日目西ら-08a (@eternals) July 14, 2019