Thousands stranded as flight cancellations wreak havoc on holiday

The New South Wales school holidays are off to a turbulent start, with high winds causing major flight delays and cancellations at Sydney Airport.

Airservices Australia implemented runway closures at 7am on Friday, which Virgin Australia said would remain in place until late afternoon.

Although several airlines have confirmed that all airlines have been affected by the weather event, it is believed that only domestic flights have been cancelled, although some have suffered delays as early as 11am.

This has led many customers to question the circumstances surrounding the 48 flight cancellations.

An Airservices Australia spokesperson, however, insisted the decision was “purely weather and safety related”.

The airspace safety organisation said “strong and gusty” westerly winds of 37 km/h (23 mph) resulted in conditions deemed unsafe for parallel runway operations, with single-runway operations being implemented as a safety precaution.

A Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) spokesman said forecast winds of 20 knots posed “a hazard to aircraft using NS runways for landing or taking off”.

Strong crosswinds (winds blowing sideways on the aircraft) impact its ability to land or take off, as aircraft require a headwind.

“So they have to use the EW runway,” the BOM spokesman said.

However, on social media, many Internet users quickly wondered whether the winds were really responsible for this disaster.

A Twitter user shared a photo of a clear sky supposedly taken on Friday morning, indicating that there was “no wind.”

Other users said that “airlines, lack of staff and runway maintenance” were the real culprits.

Another person speculated why only domestic flights were affected, given that delays and cancellations were attributed to windy conditions.

Others commented that the airport was “a mess at the moment” and wondered how the airport “now seems to know quite regularly when school holidays start”.

Neither Airservices Australia nor Sydney Airport would confirm whether only domestic flights had been affected, although an airport spokeswoman said she understood no international flights had been cancelled as of 10:30am.

Conversely, a total of 48 domestic flights were cancelled during the morning.

Dozens of flights were also cancelled and delayed along the country’s east coast on Thursday due to a severe shortage of air traffic controllers, leading to an effective closure of airspace south of Brisbane.

Airservices Australia said Friday’s delays and cancellations were unrelated to Thursday’s events.

Virgin said a number of its Sydney services were impacted by Friday’s weather.

“Due to the westerly wind today, operations have been reduced to a single runway, which is expected to remain in place until late this afternoon,” a Virgin spokesperson said.

“All passengers affected by today’s cancellations are being recovered on the next available flights, with the majority being recovered today.”

Qantas said it also expected “a number of services” to be delayed or cancelled, and would also move affected customers to the next available flight.

Jetstar confirmed that 12 services had been cancelled during the morning and that it would “reaccommodate passengers on alternative services as quickly as possible”.

A Sydney Airport spokesperson advised passengers with questions to contact their airline directly.

“There are delays and cancellations of flights,” they said.

“Airlines are working hard to re-accommodate passengers and get them back on their flights.”

The BOM said a series of cold fronts hitting Victoria, southeast of New South Wales, were bringing “cool” westerly and southwesterly air currents to the southeast and central east of the state, which includes Sydney.

“The current Sydney PA forecast is for westerly winds to continue until early this afternoon, then ease to below 20kts in the latter part of the afternoon,” the BOM spokesperson said.

“However, aerodrome forecasts are subject to change or amendment depending on the development of the weather systems concerned.”