Sydney Airport flight delays to Jetstar and Qantas

Flights in and out of Sydney Airport could be delayed with only one runway operating due to poor weather conditions.

Airservices Australia said the airport’s two other runways closed due to ‘gusty, westerly crosswinds’ shortly before 1pm on Friday.

‘This decision is purely weather and safety-related to safeguard the travelling public,’ an Airservices Australian spokesperson told Nine News. 

The closure adheres to International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) safety regulations.

The Bureau of Meteorology reported the wind speed at Sydney Airport sat at 26km/h as of 12.30pm.

Sydney Airport said there have been no cancellations caused by the closure.

Strong to damaging winds have been forecast to stay over Australia’s southeast for the next 48 hours with Adelaide and Melbourne to see the worst conditions.

The news follows a series of delays at the airport with more than 200 domestic flights cancelled in the last few days.

The flights were largely cancelled due to poor weather and crew shortages with Virgin alone canning five return flights due to staff unavailability.

The cancellations left several customers frustrated, especially families whose school holiday plans were thrown into disarray.

One Virgin customer said she’d ‘never had a worse experience’.

The closure follows hundreds of flight cancellation to and from Sydney Airport due to poor weather and crew shortages

‘We were meant to fly my family to Hobart for a longed-for holiday,’ she said.

‘After a last minute cancellation and long waits, another rescheduled flight tomorrow. I’ve got no confidence they’ll get us there.’

Meanwhile a Qantas customer said her family was delayed by six hours and met by technical difficulties at check-in.

‘Not happy, my partner is very tall and two exit rows are available on the seat map but coming up as “unavailable” when we try to select them,’ she said.