A shortage of air traffic controllers has led to flight cancellations and significant delays at Sydney airport on Monday, the federal agency responsible for air traffic management in Australia said, quoted by Reuters, BTA reported.
The agency said it had imposed air traffic management measures "to safely manage aviation demand" The staffing shortage has caused around 14 arriving flights to be cancelled and many more delayed by more than an hour. It is the latest setback to Australia's busiest airport, which has been hit by staff shortages and has been subject to investigations into several recent incidents that have raised the risk of collisions at the airport. "Last night, at relatively short notice, we had a number of unplanned staff absences that we have not been able to recover from," the aviation authority's deputy chief executive Peter Curran told a Senate committee examining the aviation sector today. "This morning we had one person missing from the control tower and that caused significant delays," he added. "The air traffic control measures were lifted at 8.15am local time." time. There were a few minor delays for the rest of the morning, and traffic returned to normal in the afternoon.
Of the 49 controllers working in Sydney, 41 are required to operate the airport. Eight of them are unavailable due to long-term absences, leaving little room to make up for unexpected staff shortages, Curran said.
The Air Traffic Control Agency said it was taking steps to recruit more air traffic controllers and to facilitate the recruitment of additional staff as needed.