A mass outage of several airport security machines – including passport e-security gates – has caused significant delays at Sydney and Melbourne International Airport.
Videos post to social media reflect queues from the custom area all the way back to check-in counters.
Australian Border Force has confirmed the delays, with the root cause still unclear, nor how many airports nationwide are affected.
The start of the queue to get into international departures, we are all wondering if 2 hr early is enough. #sydneyairport pic.twitter.com/E64adpC6fj
— Douglas Abdiel (@dougabdiel) 14 July 2019
Line to get to the departure secuirty/boarding…..at #sydneyairport ……😱💀 pic.twitter.com/QHGYeEUw1A
— Ten🍀C96 1日目西ら-08a (@eternals) 14 July 2019
Holy cow the line to go to security/boarding at Sydney airport go all the way around the terminal it’s so crazy 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 I never saw that before…
— Ten🍀C96 1日目西ら-08a (@eternals) 14 July 2019
Passengers are advised to arrive earlier than usual, with some asserting the standard two hours is not enough.
The news comes after several airlines cancelled flights over the weekend, citing wild weather at Sydney airport.
Back in April, several SmartGate passport control machines witnessed a nationwide outage, affecting in and outbound travellers.
airport chaos in sydney due to weather #airport #virgin #sydneyairport #strongwinds pic.twitter.com/NYMOKoWb0a
— Phil Mawson (@pmawson) 14 July 2019
