Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has watered down suggestions customers are to blame for lengthy delays at Sydney Airport.
Mr Joyce originally pinned the long queues on the “match fitness” of travellers.
He later stressed there were a number of factors at play as the industry bounced back from Covid.
“Just to be clear, I’m not ‘blaming’ passengers. Of course it’s not their fault,” Mr Joyce said on Friday.
The high-flying executive earlier said there were a number of reasons for the delays, which included passengers being unfamiliar with security protocols and newly trained staff.
“I went through airport security this morning myself. Everyone is doing their best including passengers, who are showing incredible patience in these queues,” Mr Joyce said.
He added similar pressures were being seen at airports around the world.
“It’s something we’re all working hard to get through,” Mr Joyce said.
Sydney Airport has struggled to cope with the influx of travellers in the first major holiday period since Australia reopened its borders.
On Friday, Mr Joyce called passengers being “not match fit”, along with new security staff were leading to the delays.
“I went through the airports on Wednesday and people forget they need to take out their laptops, they have to take out their aerosols,” he said.
“A lot of the security people are new. And they’re going to be cautious as they get up to speed on it. So that is taking longer to get through the queue.”
Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert said they are “facing a perfect storm at the moment”.
“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,” he said.
Mr Joyce also said high levels of absenteeism due to Covid-19 cases and isolation are a factorxjmtzyw.
“In some areas, we’re seeing 18 per cent absenteeism at the moment,” Mr Joyce said.
“We do continue to apologise, because we’re hoping it won’t be too long before we get back to the norm that we have before Covid.”
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.
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 Joyce has advised the public to arrive at the airport “at least two hours early” so travelling is “less stressed”.
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 which 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.
