Sydney Airport flights disrupted due to air traffic controller shortage

A shortage of air traffic controllers caused flight cancellations and major delays at Sydney Airport on Friday morning, the federal agency responsible for managing Australia's air traffic said.



Airservices Australia said it imposed measures to manage air traffic flows "to safely manage aviation demand" because of the staffing shortage.



That led to around 14 cancellations of inbound flights, and delays of more than one hour.



The disruption is the latest to hit the nation's busiest airport as Airservices Australia grapples with staff shortages, and comes amid probes into several recent near-misses at the airport.



"Last night, at relatively short notice, we had some unplanned absenteeism, which we weren't able to recover from," Airservices Australia Deputy Chief Executive Peter Curran told a Senate committee examining the aviation sector on Friday.



"We're one down in the tower this morning and that led to some significant delays," he said.



The air traffic measures were lifted at 8:15 a.m. after conditions improved. Some minor delays continued for the rest of the morning, with flights back on schedule in the afternoon.



Airservices was working with airlines to reduce delays and the impact on passenger travel as much as possible, a spokesperson said by email.