Christmas ‘busy but not chaotic’, says Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert

Travellers should expect queues but not chaos at Sydney Airport over the Christmas holidays, with the gateway still short of about 2000 workers in the wake of the pandemic.

Christmas travellers should expect queues but not chaos at Sydney Airport, with the gateway still short of about 2000 workers in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

Speaking at the Australian Airports Association national conference in Adelaide, Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert said they would be tested over Christmas but were better prepared than at any other time during the recovery.

“We will again be asking travellers for patience over the festive season,” he said.

“But I am quietly confident that most passengers will have a Christmas airport experience similar to what they had pre-Covid, that is busy, but not chaotic.”

The difficulty in attracting workers back to the airport had meant they remained about 2000 people short after losing at least 15,000 employees over the last two years.

Mr Culbert said that meant they were “making trade-offs every day”.

“Almost every hour we’re triaging and moving staff around the airport to make sure we have people where they’re needed the most,” he said.

The conference also heard of the need for greater government support to boost airline capacity with international seats into Sydney still at only 58 per cent of 2019 levels.

Mr Culbert said in the case of Qatar Airways, the Gulf carrier desperately wanted to increase flights into Australia beyond the 28 services a week to which it was restricted.

He said there needed to be more flexibility to change bilateral agreements to help grow capacity.

“In a world where one of the major constraints is supply, and you’ve got a major international carrier who wants to fly down here and wants to bring more capacity, it makes more sense to expand the bilateral to meet that demand,” said Mr Culbert.

The lack of capacity was only serving to push airfares higher, along with record fuel prices.

Qantas chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson told the conference, cost of living was a challenge for everyone, including the airline.

Ms Hudson provided an insight into her very disciplined approach to costs at Qantas, which has been accused of “cutting too deep” during the pandemic at the expense of customer service.

Qantas chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson has offered an insight into how she might run the group should she replace Alan Joyce as CEO next year. Picture: Damian Shaw/NCA NewsWire

Ms Hudson said managing the airline’s business was all about efficiency, and they expected the same of their airport partners.

“We have to find a way to deliver a lower cost of service in the future,” she said.

“That’s how we want to partner with (airports) going forward.

“The one certainty is, I talk about with my team, that once you put costs in they stick and the revenue environment we operate in is uncertain, so every dollar that goes in has to go in with absolutely certainty that it is efficient.”

Her comments about costs followed a furore over Qantas ditching of vegetarian meal options in the domestic economy cabin, which were only recently reinstated.

Cabin crew were also seeking to reverse cuts made during Covid-19 that saw their numbers reduced from five to four on domestic flights.

Ms Hudson emphasised Qantas’s performance issues were now back to pre-Covid-19 levels, in terms of flight delays, cancellations and mishandled bags.

And she said Qantas was confident of retaining and even growing market share in the face of new competition from the likes of Rex and low-cost carrier Bonza.

“If we look at how we compete, we very much focus on what we do best and that’s Qantas serving the premium market and Jetstar bringing low fares,” said Ms Hudson.

“We are very, very focused on making sure the cost base of Jetstar remains the lowest, so we can bring air travel to a larger part of the market.”

Originally published as Christmas ‘busy but not chaotic’, says Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert