Airport chaos as ‘smart’ gates malfunction causing travellers to queue for more than a kilometre

A nationwide technical problem caused chaos at Sydney International Airport, with customers queuing for a mile as technicians rushed to resolve the problem.

The Australian Border Force (ABF) confirmed the outage on Saturday morning.

“We are aware of a technical issue with the smart gates at Sydney Airport,” a spokesperson said, apologizing for the delays.

“We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and have deployed additional officers to assist travelers.”

In a message to X late Saturday morning, Sydney Airport provided this update: ‘Issues with e-gate machines have been resolved. The customs clearance queue at the T1 international terminal has now returned to normal. Thank you for your patience.’

But the issue led to major delays for travelers, with crowds building up between the immigration gate and the terminal.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), traveler Rajiv Singal documented the extent of the delays earlier this morning.

A long queue formed from the immigration gate to the terminal as the ABF tried to resolve the problem. Image:

“Are you flying internationally from Sydney? There’s a mile long line at immigration control!” He posted it with the accompanying video.

“And I think it would be the same across Australia because there seems to be a problem with their systems.”

It is understood that Melbourne Airport has only had minor disruptions but has not suffered any delays.

The ABF has been contacted for further comment.