Thousands of more passengers at Sydney Airport are facing frustrating waits as the chaotic scenes which saw more than 100 delays on Friday continues.
For the second day in a row, the number of flights delayed hit triple figures, with 150 services impacted.
On Friday, the major airport saw horrendous delays, which air traffic controllers Airservice Australia said was due to control tower staffing issues.
The disruption saw at least 110 international and domestic flights postponed, with some aircraft left sitting on the tarmac for two hours.
And while Airservice Australia said the issues on Friday had been resolved, the organisation confirmed on Saturday that “roster restraints” continued to affect the airport.
Stephen Beckett, chief executive of industry group Airlines for Australia and New Zealand, said thousands of passengers were affected.
“We understand that they are again struggling to have enough people rostered on in the air traffic control tower to keep air services operating efficiently,” he said.
“The advice we’ve received is that both international and domestic flights are impacted. We have more than 150 delays this morning.”
Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, is reported to be heavily impacted, with 95 delays across its network.
As of Saturday morning, several services continued to experience disruption, including an international arrival from Kuala Lumpur which is set to land close to four hours late.
Domestic arrivals from Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra are also not set to land on schedule, while a service from Wagga Wagga is expected to be almost two hours late.
A spokesman for Airservices Australia said on Saturday that roster constraints continued to be affecting the airport.
“Airservices Australia has enacted Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) measures including departure spacing at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport today due to roster constraints, to safely manage projected airborne and departure demands,” a statement read.
“Airservices acknowledges the ATFM measures may cause some disruptions to airline scheduling and is working with airlines to reduce delays and the impact on passenger travel as much as possible.
“Airservices is enhancing our training pipeline to add further controllers to improve roster depth and is working to address rostering issues that reduce the flexibility of our workforce.”
The government-owned air traffic controller acknowledged further delays were likely. Picture: NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone
However, live flight information on Sydney Airport’s website does show a clearer picture heading later into the day.
Meanwhile, Australia’s peak body for airlines slammed Friday’s delays, which led to at least 110 international and domestic flights out of Sydney Airport delayed, with some sitting on the tarmac for two hours.
The Sydney Airport website also crashed shortly after 2pm: “There might be too much traffic or a configuration error”, the website error message said.
In a statement, Airservices Australia said it had delayed the flights because of “operational restrictions”.
The government-owned corporation “enacted Air Traffic Flow Management measure at Sydney Airport”, “due to operational restrictions to safely manage projected airborne and departure demands”.
“Airservices acknowledges the (air traffic flow management) measures, which have now been removed, caused disruptions to airline scheduling, however capacity has now been restored and no further significant delays are anticipated,” the spokesman said.
“Airservices air traffic controllers are incredibly proud and dedicated to performing what is a demanding, safety-critical role.
“We take their wellbeing and psychosocial safety seriously and ask that commentary on operational performance recognises the professionalism and commitment of the controllers working every day to keep the travelling public safe.”
At least 56 Qantas international and domestic flights were delayed, and four were cancelled.
Virgin cancelled two flights and delayed 20.
Twenty-five Jetstar planes were delayed, and regional carrier Rex reportedly had to offload passengers and send them back inside.
Dozens of Qantas flights were delayed and four were cancelled on Friday. Picture: NewsWire / Christian Gilles
Peak body Airlines for Australia chief executive, Stephen Beckett, said the “catastrophic” delays will have the knock-on effect of people missing their international flights.
“This is a persistent problem that Airservices says they have fixed,” Mr Neckett said.
“Australia has an incredibly safe aviation system and our air traffic controllers do a fantastic job – we need Airservices to ensure they have enough people and robust rosters to do the job.”
He offered a glib assessment of Airservice’s issues.
“Another day, another Airservices delay. Tens of thousands of Australian travellers will have their commute impacted by this – they will miss international connections,” Mr Neckett said.
“This is catastrophic for the national network – we need to know what is going on.”