Sydney Airport cancels more than 10 flights due to fog, technical faults

Flight delays and cancellations have plagued Sydney Airport on Monday morning, this time due to security scanning issues and weather, with passengers forced to queue outside the terminal.

Sydney Airport has once again been plagued with delays, this time due to technical issues and heavy fog blanketing the airport on Monday morning.

More than 10 flights were cancelled with dozens more delayed, as travellers were forced to queue outside along the road after a faulty x-ray machine at the Jetstar, Virgin and Rex domestic terminal caused further delays.

It came as new data showed where Sydney Airport’s delays ranked against the likes of London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol airports, while in a separate finding, flight-data specialist FlightAware revealed Toronto’s Pearson International as the world’s worst for delays.

Passengers are forced to queue outside the Virgin, Jetstar and Rex terminal at Sydney Airport due to delays on Monday morning. Picture: Twitter

Sydney Airport officials said they were attempting to rectify the issue and apologised for the delays.

“We’re sorry about the queues and are working with airline to get everyone on their way,” a spokeswoman said.

“Heavy fog affected flights earlier this morning and a technical issue has meant we’re temporarily operating one less security lane than normal in T2 domestic.”

While many passengers were forced to queue outside, most passengers were happy with the way the airport and airlines were managing the incident.

Teenagers Jamie Mayberry and Lily-Jane Burchett were shocked after initially thinking the queues started inside but were actually outside.

“It’s very overcrowded, I didn’t expect this because its during the week and I thought everyone would be at work or at school but no, everyone is flying and travelling,” Ms Mayberry said.

“Mum was, like, ‘make sure you get there three hours before’.”.

Jamie Mayberry and Lily-Jane Burchett are seen among the chaos at Sydney Domestic Airport (T2) on Monday. Picture: NCA Newswire

Anna Glide was travelling to Airlie Beach in Queensland with her partner and two children aged four and seven and said they had not waited too long to drop their bags for their “bucket list” holiday.

“They pushed us through because we have children so it’s been good,” she said.

“It has been a good experience, they take care of families.

“(The queues) were long but they’re moving fast, all the people that work here help to move you along.”

While there were no major delays - bar a few cancelled flights - at the Qantas domestic terminal, earlier this month a Qantas executive admitted the airline was not meeting customer expectations, blaming economy-wide labour shortages and outbreaks of Covid and influenza for delays, cancellations and lost luggage.

Anna and Greg Glide with their children Shanelle and Taylor at Sydney Domestic Airport (T2) on Monday morning. Picture: NCA Newswire

Qantas Domestic and International chief executive Andrew David made the extraordinary admission earlier this month following weeks of bad publicity in an opinion piece published by the airline.

“Much has been said about Qantas in the last few months,” Mr David said.

“Some of it’s fair, as we’re absolutely not delivering the service that our customers expect, but some of it fails to take into consideration what’s happening across the industry here and around the world.”

Mr David pointed to the airline posting $6bn in losses and more than $24bn in lost revenue since the start of the pandemic, but noted they were able to “weather the storm” by making “very difficult decisions”.

“The truth is that the difficulties we are facing now are because of Covid and flu-related sickness, as well as an extremely tight labour market,” he said.