As airport queue stretched out the door on Saturday wreaking havoc on the holiday plans of hundreds of thousands of travellers, the airport said people arriving too far in advance for their flight was adding to problems caused by wet weather, school holidays and continuing staff shortages.
There were technical issues with luggage check-in systems across several domestic airlines on Friday and Saturday, which resulted in long lines at baggage drops.
Sydney airport is crazy this morning. Check in is completely packed and bag drop line is out the door and spilling into an undercover area next to the terminal. pic.twitter.com/nJGp0z207r
— Molly Glassey (@GlasseyMolly) July 1, 2022
There were a lot of people in the front door.
Industrial action on the train network caused significant disruptions on Friday. On Friday there were only two trains an hour running to the airport stations, however on Saturday there were seven trains an hour.
Due to the train shortages and wet weather, many travellers chose to drive to the airport.
Due to the amount of foot traffic between the car park, drop-off bays and the terminals, traffic was reduced to one lane.
There were a number of flight delays and cancelations due to the weather across the country.
Between Friday and Monday, more than 350,000 people are expected to pass through the airport, which is 300,000 more than during the Easter holiday.
While the airport has been stressing the need for domestic travellers to arrive two hours before their flight due to chronic staff shortages, some passengers have taken the message with an abundance of caution and are causing congestion in the terminal.
Travelers were warned not to arrive earlier than two hours before their flight departure.
The check-in lines did not go over 30 minutes on Saturday, despite the appearance of long lines.
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More than 30,000 people were employed at the airport before Covid, but 15,000 jobs were lost during the Pandemic and the airport is desperately trying to fill 5,000 jobs.
Several flights were canceled on Saturday morning, causing long lines at the airport.
There have been chaotic scenes at Australian airports throughout the year, however growing numbers of Australians wanting to travel overseas this winter are believed to be contributing to the regular school holiday surge in airport activity.
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