Sydney Airport: Strong winds close down runway as flights cancelled for second straight weekend

The nation’s busiest airport has been limited to a single runway for a second straight weekend of strong winds, causing more travel disruption.

More than 40 domestic flights in and out of Sydney on Sunday were cancelled and dozens more delayed.

A Sydney Airport spokeswoman confirmed it has moved to single runway operations on the advice of AirServices Australia.

‘While the impact is minimal, there are some flight delays and cancellations,’ she said in a statement.

‘Passengers should speak to their airlines to get the latest information on the status of their flights.’

It is understood shortages of air traffic control staff in the Brisbane airspace are causing further delays for passengers.

Sydney Airport usually operates two north-south runways but moves to a single east-west strip when experiencing crosswinds.

More than 100 domestic flights were cancelled at Sydney Airport last weekend when pilots were limited to a single runway due to blustery conditions.

The cancellations caused a massive backlog, with huge crowds forming at the airport’s domestic terminal as the NSW school holidays began.

‘Gusty, westerly crosswinds’ also caused the airport to close a runway on Friday.

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

Strong to damaging winds were forecast to stay over Australia’s southeast for at least48 hours with Adelaide and Melbourne to see the worst conditions.

The airport saw more than 200 domestic flights cancelled in the last few days.

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.

Heavy winds have caused numerous delays at Sydney’s airport over the past week (generic image pictured)

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

‘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.