Power problem crashes air control
A “TECHNICAL issue” grounded nearly all flights in and out of Sydney Airport early yesterday morning – the first day of the NSW school holidays – causing travel chaos across the country.
Airservices Australia, the agency that controls air traffic control systems around the nation, announced about 9.30am the system outage had been addressed and flights would resume, but passengers were told to be patient as the bungle would have a major knock-on effect for the entire country.
“The issue has been addressed but the airport is not at normal capacity. We are working hard to clear the backlog of flights,” Airservices Australia spokeswoman Sarah Fulton told AAP.
A spokesperson for Brisbane Airport said the knock-on delays were being felt heavily in Brisbane.
“If one airport sneezes the others will catch the cold because we’re all interconnected,” a Brisbane Airport Corporation spokeswoman told AAP.
“A lot of flights will be impacted because it is one of the busiest routes to and from Brisbane.”
Melbourne Airport also confirmed likely delays throughout the day.
It is understood power in the traffic system operations went down, leaving air traffic control having to revert to a manual process for departing flights.
Some frustrated passengers were not sympathising with the “technical issues”, however, taking to social media to question how a major airport could even have such a significant outage.
One Twitter user posted: “Sydney Airport, what incompetent muppet has a major airport without back-up power in control tower?”
Another wrote: “900 jobs were cut last year. Turnbull Govt owns Air Services Australia, Darren Chester is the minister responsible.”
– Liz Burke