[Peetwo]

Two ATCOs have a sickie and the system can't cope - WTD?

Via the Oz:

Airports in meltdown after two staff call in sick

Long queues of frustrated passengers at Sydney Airport yesterday. Picture: Luke Drew

• EMILY RITCHIE
  REPORTER
  
  
• 11:00PM OCTOBER 7, 2018
  
• 28 COMMENTS
  

Thousands of travellers were left stranded at various Australian airports yesterday after two air traffic control staffers called in sick at Sydney Airport.

At least 26 outbound domestic flights were cancelled at the airport, affecting Qantas, Qantas Link, Tiger Air, Jetstar and Virgin passengers and causing a domino effect of delays at interstate and regional airports.

At least another three flights were delayed in Sydney during the chaos, which was exacerbated by heavy rain and thick cloud that covered the city all day.

A spokeswoman from Airservices Australia confirmed the day’s flight schedule had to be reorganised after two staffers reported at the last minute they were ill, meaning fewer staff were available to organise the airport’s busy school-holiday schedule. “As safety is our first priority, we had to slow down traffic while we worked with the airlines to resolve the issue,” the spokeswoman said.

“We were able to get in extra staff to return to full capacity and reworked the schedule but ­unfortunately the impact on services could not be fully recovered and some flights had already been cancelled.”

All inbound flights were due to reach their destination by ­curfew last night.

Airservices Australia, a federal government agency, is responsible for airspace manage­ment and ensuring safe airspace navigation around the country.

Passenger volumes were heavier than usual, given it was the middle weekend of the NSW October school holidays and the end of the school holidays in Victoria.

Airlines dealt with the backlog of passengers by either finding spare seats on later flights or delaying trips until today.

Qantas issued a statement saying everything was being done to “get customers moving” yesterday afternoon.

“But the reduced take off and landing rates meant we’ve had to cancel some flights,” the statement said.

“Some customers were moved to flights on Sunday evening but as it’s school holidays, we have limited spare seats so others won’t travel until ­Monday.”

Disgruntled travellers vented their frustration on social media and in many cases it was the airlines copping the blame over the cancellations. “First Jetstar cancel my 7am flight on Friday to Sydney without notifying me and then our flight at 4pm today to go back to Melbourne is cancelled with no notification. What a waste of money and points,” one person wrote.

Alana Vouroudis took to Twitter to write: “Thanks @SydneyAirport — my flight home to Sydney has been cancelled due to lack of staff/ a strike. Now I’ve been told by @Qantas that we will only be compensated for the room (up to $200; which is nothing) and not for dinner tonight or transfer tomorrow. NOT HAPPY!!”

MTF...P2