Strong winds of up to 90km/h caused further chaos at Sydney Airport after a global IT outage, with travellers warned to brace for further delays.
Several domestic flights were delayed and cancelled at Sydney Airport on Saturday afternoon due to bad weather.
“Due to high winds, Airservices Australia is operating our east-west runway, which may cause some delays throughout the afternoon,” a Sydney Airport spokesperson said.
“We advise travelers to contact their airline to find out the status of their flight.”
This comes after IT systems at airports and airlines suffered a global outage on Friday, grounding planes and disrupting the travel plans of thousands of passengers.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for parts of the New South Wales east coast on Saturday.
Wind speeds reached more than 90 kilometers per hour in some areas.
The General Authority of Meteorology warned of strong northwesterly winds, in preparation for an upcoming cold front, which will lead to strong winds blowing in the interior and coastal areas.
These winds are expected to turn southwesterly from late afternoon and ease out of the west during late evening into Sunday morning. Destructive winds of up to 100km/h – with gusts of up to 130km/h – are forecast for mountainous areas of NSW.
The office also warned of the possibility of a “blizzard”.
On the south coast, wind speeds are expected to average 60-70 km/h, with maximum gusts reaching around 100 km/h.
Locations that may be affected include Newcastle, Sydney, Katoomba, Wollongong, Nowra, Goulburn, Cooma and Thredbo Top Station.
Gayle Baker was celebrating her 60th birthday in Sydney after her son gave her a trip away to mark the special occasion.
After five days in Sydney, she was due to return to Queensland on Friday, when chaos erupted.
“We arrived here (Sydney airport) and we received no messages from Jetstar at all,” she said.
“We had been standing in line for two and a half hours when our flight was cancelled.”
Ms Baker said her son had to go to great lengths to find them accommodation, walking to it because they were “not paying any more money than they needed to”.
At 5am on Saturday morning the couple heard they had been put on a flight home at 12.20pm, but after waiting in line at baggage drop for more than an hour, their flight was cancelled again.
Ms. Baker said she hoped her family’s next flight, which is scheduled for later Saturday afternoon, would go ahead.
“I hope the journey continues, God willing,” she said.
“The last 48 hours have not been fun at all,” she said.
“A lot of standing and waiting.”
Disgruntled passengers also flooded the comments on Jetstar X’s page, claiming they were “stranded”.
“I still can’t reach you, we’ve been stranded since yesterday morning,” one user commented.
“We received no assistance with accommodation and were not given the option to fly today, so we spent another night at our own expense. How can we arrange to be reimbursed for the two nights and expenses?” wrote another.
A Sydney Airport spokesman said earlier there could be “spillover impacts” to individual airlines as a result of Friday’s service disruption.
“Airport systems are online and operations are normal, however there are some knock-on effects for individual airlines,” an airport spokesperson said.
“Anyone traveling today should check with their airline regarding the status of their flight.”
Jetstar was the hardest hit by the outage, with the airline believed to be experiencing issues with baggage, with customers still able to check in their bags, but the process taking longer than usual.
Jetstar Australia confirmed in a statement that the company was beginning to stabilise, with flights expected to operate as scheduled on Saturday.
A statement on Jetstar Australia’s website read: “Please proceed to the airport as normal. A small number of flights may be affected for operational reasons. If your flight is affected, we will contact you directly using the contact details provided in your booking.”
Jetstar’s communications system used to communicate with customers was reportedly affected by a power outage yesterday, leaving the company unable to contact customers.
