Australian holidaymakers are in for a tough few day with airport authorities warning of horror queues before the Easter break even arrives.
Sydney airport chief Geoff Culbert predicted ‘another tough day for travellers’ with 82,000 passengers expected through the domestic terminal on Thursday, while post-pandemic peaks are also forecast for Brisbane and Gold Coast airports.
Staff shortages and surging passenger numbers have resulted in check-in and security screening wait-times blowing out out for a week now.
Over 910,000 passengers are expected to use Sydney’s domestic airport terminal in mid-April with Easter to Anzac Day the busiest period, including peaks of 82,000 passengers on April 14 and 22 (pictured Jetstar and Virgin customers wait in line on Wednesday)
Sydney airport chief Geoff Culbert predicted ‘another tough day for travellers’ with a recent record of 82,000 passengers expected through the domestic terminal, (pictured, passengers queue outside the terminal at Sydney terminal)
Melbourne airport authorities offically advised people to arrive three-plus hours early for international flights and said that 1.4million passengers would use the airport over 13 days in April (pictured, passengers queue inside Melbourne airport)
Normally passengers flying interstate are told to arrive an hour early for smooth check-ins but all airports are warning people to come at least two hours early for flights between Easter and Anzac Day a week later.
At times in the past week check-in queues have snaked out of terminals and onto the pavement outside, with some people reporting waiting two and a half hours to check in for domestic flights.
Melbourne airport went further and suggested anyone coming for an international flight should arrive three-plus hours before takeoff.
It expected ‘1.4million travellers’ to go through Melbourne airport in a two and a half week period up to Anzac Day.
Sydney airport predicted 910,000 passengers would use its domestic terminals over 13 days between April 14 and 26.
Its busiest days are expected to be April 14 and 22, both with 82,000 passengers, followed by Good Friday, with 79,000.
Mr Culbert conceded things would get so busy at Sydney that ‘senior executives’ were being rostered to boost staff numbers.
‘I know it’s a difficult message to hear but Thursday is going to be another tough day for travellers, and I want to apologise in advance to anyone who is inconvenienced,’ Mr Culbert said.
Thursday looms as ‘Air-mageddon’ for Australian holidaymakers with airport authorities apologising for horror queues before the Easter break even arrives (pictured, travellers queue at Sydney airport on Wednesday)
Brisbane airport expects over 50,000 passengers to go through the terminal on Thursday April 14 (pictured, passengers queue to check in at Brisbane airport)
‘Tomorrow and right through the school holidays we are pulling every lever available to us to get people on their way safely, including deploying senior executives and staff into our terminals to manage queues and ensure people make their flights.’
He said a fifth of regular staff were off on ‘Covid-related absences’ and while the situation was improving, ‘there is no avoiding the fact that significant queuing may occur over Easter.’
Qantas boss Alan Joyce was slammed last week for saying passengers were not ‘match fit’ at check-in time, a comment that was echoed by a senior Sydney airport boss.
Sydney airport’s general manager of operations, Greg Hay repeated Joyce’s claim that passengers were forgetting to take laptops out of bags and that they couldn’t travel with aerosol cans.
Travellers are reminded to check in online and prepare their luggage carefully before arriving at the terminals to help prevent delays.
Earlier Sydney airport authorities warned people not to bring their cars unless they already had online bookings because the parking stations were already full.
Passenger numbers are predicted to hit 50,000 at Brisbane airport for the first time in two years.
‘We predict this coming Thursday to be our busiest day yet with more than 50,000 passengers expected,’ Brisbane Airport Corporation communications manager Rachel Bronish told AAP.
Australian airports are set for an Air-mageddon on Thursday with significant delays and airline and airport bosses rostered on to work at Sydney because of Covid-related staff shortages
Queensland Airports boss Chris Mills predicted Gold Coast airport would see its busiest day since 2018 with 28,000 seats scheduled for Easter Monday.
Recent records were broken at Gold Coast were broken a week ago and will surge again with the re-introduction of the Jetstar Gold Coast-Auckland service on Wednesday.
Perth Airport’s Chief Operating Officer, Scott Woodward, also pleaded with passengers to ‘be patient. We’ll get you through as quickly as we can.’
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