Holidaymakers are urged to arrive early for flights departing from Melbourne and Sydney to navigate blocked terminals after passengers suffered long queues and delays at major airports in the two cities on Friday morning.
A long weekend of the Queen’s 95,000th passenger birthday will move through the airport on Friday, making it the busiest day to travel since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“The terminals will be busy, so we recommend that passengers arrive between one and two hours before a domestic flight and two or three hours before international flights,” a Melbourne airport spokesman said.
Photos posted on social media showed long queues at Melbourne check-in counters on Friday morning, which had cleared at 9.30am. There were similar scenes at Sydney Airport.
Long queues at Sydney Airport on Friday morning. Credit: New
The long delays threaten a repeat of the chaos experienced during the long Easter weekend, when airports struggled to move passengers to their terminals amid a shortage of security staff and baggage check-in.
Greg Reid, who was due to fly to Sydney from Melbourne on Friday, said the airport was a “total organized mess”.
“Never in your life have you seen so many people wanting to catch a plane. I got here at 7am this morning and they told me I couldn’t book until 8am … I just passed security check now, “he said at around 9am.
“[It’s] amazing … you’ve never seen crowds like this. “