Sydney Airport in chaos as staff shortage grounds dozens of flights

Dozens of flights had to cancelled at one of Australia’s busiest airports on Thursday after severe staff shortages and safety fears.

Dozens of domestic flights at Sydney Airport have been cancelled, while several others have been hit with up to a two hour  delay after a critical staff shortage.

At least 25 flights scheduled from 6.30am to 9.40pm have been cancelled, according to FlightRadar

All the major airlines have made cancellations due to the fallout from staff shortages.

Qantas has confirmed at least thirty cancellations in total.

Virgin Australia has said eight flights have been cancelled at this stage.

Jetstar had a total of six cancellations but is experiencing delays of at least one and a half hours across the network.

The airlines had informed customers of the delays via SMS.

Airservices Australia has said that an unforeseen shortage in air traffic controllers has meant that aircraft have been staggered to ensure safety.

“Airservices has briefed airlines on the need for air traffic controllers to implement spacing intervals for aircraft arriving and departing Sydney today to safely manage operations while a number of our local staff are on short-notice sick and carers leave,” an Airservices Australia spokesperson said.

“We will keep delays to a minimum and apologise for any impact to our customers and the travelling public.”