Spread the love

Sydney-Airport-DepartureAn old piece of Aussie advice – “Never travel during the Easter holidays” – seems truer this year than ever.
The classic reply to that advice is: “Why not? Everybody else does.”
That’s just the point.
Road traffic builds up. Traffic jams happen. Airports are congested.
In typical Easter school-holiday style (typical pre-Covid, that is), airport terminals grew crowded over the weekend. Long, snake-like queues at Sydney airport’s domestic terminals infuriated travellers, causing some passengers to miss international connections. Brisbane Airport was also very busy. (But hey, at least it’s better than the pandemic lockdown!)

Sydney Airport travellers

Sydney Airport travellers at the weekend. Screen shot


In Sydney, passengers arrived early as directed, but early was not early enough, in many cases.
Passengers took issue with reported comments by Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce that seemed to suggest passengers were to blame.
Joyce later clarified a comment he made on Friday that passengers were “not match fit” and some were contributing to delays by neglecting to remove laptops and aerosols from their bags at security checkpoints.
“Just to be clear, I’m not ‘blaming’ passengers,” Joyce said later. “Of course, it’s not their fault.”
Sydney Airport apologised on Saturday to delayed travellers: “We’re so sorry for this. We’re facing a perfect storm at the moment. Traffic numbers are picking up, travellers are inexperienced after two years of not traveling, and the close contact rules are making it hard to fill shifts and staff the airport. Thanks for your patience.”
Some passengers insisted the airport should have put on more staff to cope with what it knew would be a very busy period. But, as the airport pointed out, Covid contact rules have a big impact on staff.
Congestion started halfway through last week. ABC journalist Leigh Sales posted on Thursday: “Friend at Sydney Airport reports that for the second day running, security queues are absolutely untenable and causing chaos.”
Sales added a clip to illustrate the point:
https://twitter.com/leighsales/status/1512208166682996767
Exactly two weeks ago, on Monday 28 March, Sydney Airport issued the following advice – including special mention of problems concerning travellers’ laptops and aerosols:
“Sydney Airport is encouraging domestic travellers to arrive two hours before their departing flight this Easter school holidays in what’s expected to be the busiest period for domestic air travel in two years,” the Sydney Airport statement said.
“Previously domestic travellers were advised to arrive one hour before the departure of their flight. The general guidance for arriving ahead of international flights remains unchanged at three hours prior to departure.”
(In the event, many passengers found two hours wasn’t nearly enough.)
Greg Hay, Sydney Airport general manager of operations, added: “We’ve also noticed people are a little out of practice with security protocols, for example not taking laptops and aerosols out of their bag at screening points, which is contributing to the queues.”
(So that’s the origin of the comment.)
“Domestic passenger numbers have nearly doubled over the past six months, and we are anticipating this Easter school holidays to be the busiest the airport’s been since the start of the pandemic, Hay said.
“To help manage queues at security checkpoints and make sure everyone gets away on time, we’re encouraging domestic travellers to arrive two hours ahead of their scheduled departure.
“We know arriving two hours ahead is going to mean some early starts, but we want to see everyone clear security quickly and safely and get to where they’re going.”
The arrival of the Easter school holiday peak comes as Sydney Airport’s security partner, Certis Security Australia, rebuilds its workforce in line with the recovery of domestic aviation.
“Our security partner is building up their workforce to ensure smooth and safe operations at the airport as travellers return,” Hay said.
“Safety is the most important thing at Sydney Airport, and we want to thank everyone who is travelling during the Easter school holidays for their patience.”
Written by Peter Needham