Chaos hits Sydney Airport with 55 canceled flights and runways closed at end of school holidays: Qantas, Virgin and Jetstar affected
- Airport limited to a single runway
- At least 60 flights have been canceled so far
- Due to stormy winds in Sydney
Dozens of flights have been canceled at Sydney Airport, causing widespread chaos.
Australia’s busiest airport was reduced to a single runway on Thursday morning as wild winds of up to 60 kilometers per hour batter Sydney.
At least 60 flights have been canceled as the hectic end of the school holidays approaches.
“This decision is purely weather and safety related to protect the traveling public,” AirServices Australia said.
It comes after the Bureau of Meteorology issued gale force wind warnings for much of the NSW coast between Hunter and Batemans Bay. A warning for high winds has also been issued for Friday.
Travelers are urged to check with their airline.
Passengers are facing a long day of cancellations and lengthy delays at Sydney Airport
‘Due to the high winds in Sydney, some inbound and outbound flights are affected. To see if your flight is affected, please check the Qantas app,” Qantas tweeted.
Katherine and her son Lucas are among hundreds of frustrated passengers.
‘We’ve been trying to get home to Perth for two days now. We left Queenstown on Tuesday,” she told Sunrise.
The couple is still hopeful that they will finally make it home today.
‘I believe so. On Tuesday evening the flight from Brisbane to Perth was cancelled,” Katherine added
‘We stayed in Brisbane. Yesterday was Wednesday, our flight from Sydney to Perth was canceled but today we are booked to go home via Adelaide. So it’s a whistle-stop tour of Australia.’
Dozens of flights canceled due to wild winds in Sydney (file photo)
Katherine and her son Lucas have spent the past two days trying to get home to Perth
Nearly 50 percent of flights will not be able to take place because only one runway is currently in use.
“What the airlines are trying to do is get ahead of any disruption on the day so they can get in touch with passengers and message them and get them on different flights the day before,” Sydney Airport’s Josh Clements told 2GB -breakfast host Ben Fordham. .
The cancellations have already had a ripple effect at other airports in Australia.
Sydney-bound couple Nicole and Sam Stanton are currently stranded on a plane on the tarmac in Melbourne.
“I got on the plane and was ready to take off when we got a warning that we wouldn’t be leaving for at least an hour and a half,” they told the Today show.
Several flights from Sydney Airport were canceled on Thursday morning
Sydney Airport (pictured on Thursday morning) has been thrown into chaos with more than 60 flights cancelled