Melbourne Airport descends into chaos as huge queues snake through the terminal – as 21 flights out of Sydney are cancelled after Qantas IT glitch
- Chaos at Melbourne Airport with huge queues stretching across the terminal
- Similar scenes at Sydney Airport on Monday as 21 domestic flights cancelled
- Delays come after Qantas flights grounded due to IT glitch on Sunday night
- Weary passengers took to social media to complain about widespread delays
Dozens of travellers at Melbourne Airport have been warned to expect delays as giant queues are seen snaking across the terminal.
Passengers were confronted chaotic scenes at the airport on Monday morning with lines seen stretching all the way to the international terminal.
Queues also formed at the airport’s service desk after three flights to Sydney were cancelled leaving travellers scrambling to get on another flight.
Similar scenes are unfolding at Sydney Airport where dozens of domestic flights were cancelled across three airlines plagued by delays.
Dozens of travellers at Melbourne Airport have been warned to expect delays as giant queues are seen snaking across the terminal on Monday morning (pictured)
Twenty-one flights across Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar and REX have been cancelled with some frustrated travellers given just a few hours notice.
The chaos comes after the travel plans of thousands of Qantas passengers were thrown into disarray on Sunday after a nationwide computer glitch.
Hundreds were left waiting onboard grounded planes on runways across the country after an IT glitch delayed up to a dozen flights.
Qantas said the issue was discovered at about 4:30pm on Sunday and had impacted 12 domestic flights with some grounded for nearly two hours. The glitch was fixed at about 6pm but caused flow-on delays throughout the evening.
Furious travellers keen to get home in time for the start of the working week took to social media to vent about the delays.
Frustrated passengers took to social media to vent their frustration
Hundreds of passengers spent hours in airport lounges waiting to board delayed flights
The computer glitch has also impacted flights trying to take off across New Zealand
‘Any update on your international computer outage impacting every single flight from departing???? Sitting on fully packed plane on tarmac for 90mins for 2hr is pretty ridiculous!’ one grounded traveller fumed on Twitter.
The computer glitch has also affected Qantas flights across the Tasman trying to take off in New Zealand.
‘Still waiting at 7pm to leave on my Qantas plane from Auckland that was meant to leave at 5.40. Paperwork still has to be signed off,’ one traveller wrote.
Wet weather as well as a surge in flu and Covid cases for airline staff has been blamed for the widespread delays and cancellations in Sydney and Melbourne.
Passengers were confronted chaotic scenes at the airport on Monday morning with lines seen stretching all the way to the international terminal (pictured)
The latest blunder comes on the back of a tough year for the airline, with travellers reporting long delays, lost luggage and problems with customer service.
Qantas has cut more flights from its schedule as the airline is plagued with industrial disputes, understaffing, poor organisation, cancellations and delays as furious passengers share their horror experiences of travelling with the national carrier.
The news prompted Qantas Domestic and International CEO Andrew David to issue an on-air apology and vow to do better in the future.
‘Let me start by saying an apology to all your listeners. We are the national carrier, people have high expectations of us, we have high expectations of ourselves and clearly over the last few months we have not been delivering what we did pre-Covid,’ he told 2GB’s Ben Fordham last week.
Mr David confirmed Qantas had ‘reduced some of our flying this month’ and was ‘planning to do the same next month’ amidst ‘operational pressures’.
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