Sydney Airport is struggling to cope in the first major holiday period since Australia reopened its borders.
Thousands of people were jammed up in long queues on Thursday night that trailed from the security line to the check-in desk and out the front door.
“We’re facing a perfect storm at the moment,” Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Traffic numbers are picking up, travellers are inexperienced after two years of not travelling, and the close contact rules are making it hard to fill shifts and staff the airport.”
The chaos continued into Friday morning, with Peter Deppeler taking to Twitter to show crowds filling the airport foyer as early as 6am.
He said while the lines were long, the queues appeared to be moving “fast enough”.
However around the same time on Friday morning, Michelle Tran said she had missed her flight to Melbourne due to the crowded mayhem.
Travellers took to social media on Thursday night to share their view of queues that wrapped around the foyer and spilt out onto the roads beyond Terminals 2 and 3.
Some reported having to wait in queues for up to two hours.
The affected terminals service all of Australia’s major domestic airlines, including Qantas, Virgin, Jetstar and Rex flights.
sydney airport crowds thurs April 7 2022
Mr Culbert has advised travellers to arrive at the airport two hours before their flight and to exercise patience as the industry gets back on its feet.
Mitch Dale was at the airport on Thursday evening and overheard an announcement being made over the PA system that it was the “busiest day Sydney airport has had this year”.
Journalism lecturer Sue Stephenson waited in line for two hours and eventually had to be escorted through the queue to get on her flight to Port Macquarie that had started boarding.
James Bing vented his frustration, saying the airport was “understaffed and undertrained”’ and could have benefited from more security lines and priority screening lines.
