Australian airline employee reveals reason behind lengthy delays at Sydney airport

Australians are facing an Easter weekend travel nightmare with airports across the country claiming staff shortages as the cause – but airline staff say otherwise.  

Chaotic scenes were seen again at Sydney Airport on Thursday morning as more than 82,000 passengers were expected to pass through the domestic terminal in just one day. 

Predicted to be the busiest day for domestic travel in two years, understaffing mixed with school holidays and the Easter long weekend has led to mayhem as queues stretched out the door by 7am. 

Travellers have been forced to wait for hours on consecutive days in the past week, as airport authorities, airline bosses and staff point fingers at each other about who is to blame. 

One Jetstar employee has told Daily Mail Australia that airport staff faked being sick last Friday because they did not want to deal with the surge in passengers.

 ‘I know for a fact that 28 airport staff members called in sick but they weren’t, they just couldn’t deal with the pressure,’ the JetStar ground crew member told Daily Mail Australia. 

‘Jetstar alone had 13,000 travellers that day and there were only two lines at the security check.

‘It caused a three-hour delay and many passengers missed their flights because they were waiting in the queue.’ 

The lengthy wait caused a huge domino effect on subsequent flights as passengers who missed their flight rushed to secure a seat on the next plane. 

Airline staff were then asked to work overtime to accommodate frustrated passengers.  

‘We rebook passengers onto the next available flight, but the domino effect keeps happening until the last flight of the day is completely booked up and we can’t find a spot for them,’ the Jetstar employee said. 

A Jetstar employee said Sydney airport should stop shifting the blame because long delays have been caused by poor planning and a shortage of Sydney airport staff

The Jetstar ground crew member told Daily Mail Australia that airport staff faked being sick last week because they did not want to deal with the pressure of an influx of passengers. The absences caused major delays as only two security check lines were open

The airline worker, who had previously worked for Virgin Airlines, said Sydney airport should stop shifting the blame onto airline staff and passengers and should focus on solutions. 

‘It takes less than a minute for us [Jetstar staff] to check in a passenger,’ they said.

‘We have efficient and enough staff. The problem is that Sydney airport hasn’t put in appropriate workforce planning for the Easter period.

‘They knew months in advance that there was going to be this number of passengers but they failed to plan accordingly.  

‘Maybe Sydney airport should add a security line for priority passengers so that people don’t miss their flight.’  

Airline employees receive an email every few days which outlines the projected number of passengers they should expect checking-in at their terminal.  

The Jetstar employee had not received the estimated number of passengers for Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. 

Secretary of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia, Teri O’Toole (pictured centre), said airport mayhem was caused by airlines outsourcing jobs and firing thousands of experienced workers during the Covid pandemic 

Secretary of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia, Teri O’Toole, said airlines were directly responsible for staff shortages and that suggestions they did not foresee the influx of passengers was ‘ridiculous’.

‘Everybody knew travel would come back at the Easter break. To suggest this wasn’t known is ridiculous,’ Ms O’Toole told Laura Jayes on Sky News.

‘These shortages have nothing really to do with the Easter or passengers flying again.’ 

Ms O’Toole instead blamed airport mayhem on understaffing caused by airlines outsourcing jobs and firing thousands of experienced workers during the Covid pandemic.   

‘Jobs have been outsourced. They work for third party employers, they’re casual employees – they don’t work for Qantas,’ Ms O’Toole said. 

‘Qantas sacked 1,800 ground staff workers. Qantas has deliberately made these changes. 

‘To have the CEO come on and say it’s the passengers fault because they’re not taking out their deodorant … it’s ludicrous. It’s just not true. This was expected.’ 

Ms O’Toole’s comments follow Qantas CEO Alan Joyce claiming one reason for the long delays and chaotic queues at security was because passengers were not ‘match-fit”  

The airline boss said passengers were too slow at emptying their carry-on bags for scanning, which showed they were not properly prepared.

Travellers have reported waiting up to two hours in queues stretching as long as a kilometre to get through security checks at Sydney Airport.   

Airport authorities in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have warned the public that delays could blow out from Thursday to wait times even longer than last weekend.

Domestic passengers have been urged to double the amount of time they allow to check-in for flights and to get through security but the wait times look set to get worse for overseas travellers.

Melbourne Airport officially increased the recommended time passengers should arrive before departing on an international flight to an unprecedented ‘three plus hours’.

Airport authorities in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have urged travellers to double the amount of time they allow to check-in for flights over Easter and to get through security as delays could blow out to wait times even longer than last weekend