Passenger chaos as dust chokes Sydney Airport
A dust storm blanketing Sydney is causing mayhem for airline passengers, with flights into and out of the capital delayed and diverted.
All domestic flights on the busy Melbourne-Sydney route are experiencing delays this morning while at least four international flights into the harbour city have been diverted to Brisbane.
International Qantas and Singapore departures from Sydney have been delayed.
Winds up to 100 km/h are also expected to hit Sydney later this morning.
Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said Sydney Airport has been reduced to one runway this morning.
Mr Westaway said wind gusts upwards of 80 km/h had also been recorded at Mascot, with thick dust reducing visibility.
‘‘Our operations are being faced with traffic holding of at least an hour and that should occur to at least this afternoon,’’ he said.
"All our services in and out of Sydney are flying except one. We cancelled a single Sydney-Avalon return service to ease pressure on our Sydney operations, but all passengers were moved on to other Jetstar or Qantas services.
‘‘We’re focused on getting our passengers in and out of Sydney but there are some significant difficulties this morning.’’
The thick red dust has blown in from central Australia and western New South Wales and visibility is reported to be down to just 10 metres at Broken Hill.
A Melbourne Airport spokeswoman said the disruptions would continue as long as the dust storm affected Sydney.
Passengers are urged to contact their airlines for flight information.
A Singapore Airlines spokeswoman said flight SQ221, a Boeing A380 due to fly to Sydney from Melbourne before continuing to Singapore, has been delayed indefinitely. She said Sydney Airport was likely to suffer delays all day.
More to come
- with AAP
A dust storm blanketing Sydney is causing mayhem for airline passengers, with flights into and out of the capital delayed and diverted.
All domestic flights on the busy Melbourne-Sydney route are experiencing delays this morning while at least four international flights into the harbour city have been diverted to Brisbane.
International Qantas and Singapore departures from Sydney have been delayed.
Winds up to 100 km/h are also expected to hit Sydney later this morning.
Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said Sydney Airport has been reduced to one runway this morning.
Mr Westaway said wind gusts upwards of 80 km/h had also been recorded at Mascot, with thick dust reducing visibility.
‘‘Our operations are being faced with traffic holding of at least an hour and that should occur to at least this afternoon,’’ he said.
"All our services in and out of Sydney are flying except one. We cancelled a single Sydney-Avalon return service to ease pressure on our Sydney operations, but all passengers were moved on to other Jetstar or Qantas services.
‘‘We’re focused on getting our passengers in and out of Sydney but there are some significant difficulties this morning.’’
The thick red dust has blown in from central Australia and western New South Wales and visibility is reported to be down to just 10 metres at Broken Hill.
A Melbourne Airport spokeswoman said the disruptions would continue as long as the dust storm affected Sydney.
Passengers are urged to contact their airlines for flight information.
A Singapore Airlines spokeswoman said flight SQ221, a Boeing A380 due to fly to Sydney from Melbourne before continuing to Singapore, has been delayed indefinitely. She said Sydney Airport was likely to suffer delays all day.
More to come
- with AAP
