Flight delays and cancellations at Sydney Airport after staffing mishap

In a statement, a Sydney Airport spokesperson said Airservices Australia had reduced staffing levels, affecting the management of aircraft movements across the airport.

As a result, a number of Qantas, Virgin Australia and Jetstar services were either axed or delayed for extended periods on Thursday, January 15.

"Passengers are encouraged to check directly with their airline regarding the status of their flight," the spokesperson said. "All other airport operations are running as normal."

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Airservices Australia blamed the disruption on last-minute staff absences, which reduced the number of trained air traffic controllers available.

"Airservices has briefed airlines on the need for air traffic controllers to implement spacing intervals for aircraft arriving and departing Sydney today to safely manage operations while a number of our local staff are on short-notice sick and carers leave, some of whom have been covered through our resilience measures," a spokesperson said.

The agency said it was working closely with airlines to manage disruptions and minimise delays where possible.

"We will keep delays to a minimum and apologise for any impact to our customers and the travelling public," an Airservices Australia spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the agency was continuing to recruit to ensure they had "additional staff available as an on-call capability to cover these kinds of short notice absences".

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