A major technical meltdown at Sydney Airport has thrown travel plans into disarray for thousands of passengers, causing mass delays, cancellations, and scenes of frustration throughout the international terminal.
The chaos began on Tuesday morning when a significant outage crippled key airport systems, including airline check-in counters and automated baggage drop facilities. The fault led to long, snaking queues as ground staff were forced to process passengers manually, a painstakingly slow procedure that brought departures to a near standstill.
Terminal Turned 'Into Absolute Chaos'
Passengers described the terminal as descending into "absolute chaos."> Social media was quickly flooded with images and videos of extensive queues, with many travellers reporting wait times of over three hours just to reach the check-in desk. The delays had a severe knock-on effect, causing a domino effect of flight disruptions throughout the day.
Several international carriers, including Qantas, were heavily impacted. A Qantas spokesperson confirmed the technical issues were affecting multiple airlines and apologised for the disruption, acknowledging the lengthy delays customers were facing.
Domestic Travel Also Impacted
While the international terminal bore the brunt of the problems, the ripple effects were also felt in the domestic sector. Travellers were urgently advised to allow for significant extra time and to check their flight status directly with their airline before heading to the airport.
This incident is the latest in a series of technical problems to plague major Australian airports, raising serious questions about the resilience of critical infrastructure and its ability to handle such failures without catastrophic passenger disruption.
As engineers worked to resolve the issue, the backlog of affected flights continued to grow, with delays expected to persist for the remainder of the day, disrupting the plans of countless holidaymakers and business travellers alike.
