Flights from Wagga to Sydney were delayed by an hour this morning after a major outage saw all flights in and out of Sydney Airport grounded.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Wagga’s two morning flights to Sydney; the 6.20am QantasLink and 6.30am Regional Express, didn’t take off as scheduled as Sydney Airport temporarily shutdown all flights.
It’s understood the technical malfunction, which hit around 5.20am Monday, affected radar that gives a two-minute separation between flights.
Instead, a default shift to procedural control has occurred, increasing the safety distance between flights by 50 per cent.
The technical malfunction comes on the first day of school holidays and has affected thousands of people nationwide heading in and out of Sydney.
Wagga Airport Manager Leon Burger said while the two morning Wagga flights to Sydney eventually left, there will be a “domino effect” for the rest of the day as Sydney Airport plays catch-up.
“People should check with their airlines because even if the radar is back on the delays will continue throughout the day,”
“For Wagga especially, Monday mornings are busy with business traffic,” Mr Burger said.
Wagga’s 6.45am and 7.55am flights to Melbourne were not affected, and left on time.
Passengers travelling from Wagga to the Queensland coast Monday afternoon are advised to check with their airline.
While thousand of passengers across the country have been affected on the first day of the school holidays, Mr Burger said many Wagga school holiday makers flew out over the weekend before the Monday morning delays.
A Qantas spokesman said it’s unknown how long the outage will continue as they wait on confirmation from Australia’s air navigation services provider, Airservices.