National tech outage causes delays at airports across Australia

A major technical outage has affected airports across the country, leading to significant delays in processing passengers.

The issue affected SmartGate kiosks for inbound and outbound passengers at all international airports, including Sydney and Melbourne.

Long queues at Sydney Airport after the technical outage. Credit: Nine News

“Additional ABF officers are being surged into work areas to manually process passengers and provide as minimal disruption as possible,” the Australian Border Force said.

By midday the queues had significantly reduced and the SmartGates had come back online.

While the system was restored, the cause of the outage is still under investigation, an ABF spokesperson said.

A Sydney Airport spokesperson said queues were longer than usual this morning, but no flights had been impacted.

“Passengers travelling today are encouraged to check with their airline regarding the status of their flight and leave plenty of time when travelling to the T1 International Terminal,” they said.

Queues at Tullamarine Airport International Terminal in Melbourne on Friday morning. Credit: Joe Armao

A spokesperson for Melbourne Airport also confirmed customers were experiencing delays, but no flights had been affected.

SmartGates process travellers through passport control using facial recognition technology and e-passports to check identities without the need of an ABF employee.

New gates were installed at Sydney Airport earlier this year to try to ease congestion, but travellers have still reported issues when scanning their passports.

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