Waiting game: Travellers scan the arrival and departure boards at Melbourne Airport. Photo: Toby Hagon
Air travellers have been warned to expect delays across the country on Monday due to technical issues affecting the air traffic control tower at Melbourne Airport.
"As a safety precaution all traffic into and out of Melbourne has been slowed down," Airservices Australia said. "Flow on delays to the national air traffic network are expected."
The air traffic control provider has asked passengers to check with their airline for further information. At Sydney Airport, most arriving flights are expected to be 30-45 minutes late.
Melbourne Airport's website showed several flights by Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia Holdings are among those that have experienced delays.
A spokeswoman for Airservices Australia said the control tower had lost power at one point, leading to all flights being temporarily suspended.
However, power has since been restored and planes are once again flying, although there is a backlog of aircraft waiting to take off.
A Qantas captain addressing passengers on a delayed flight departing Melbourne this morning described the situation as "unprecedented".
"They tried to reboot the system a number of times without success," he said.
"They've gone back to a manual system for processing aircraft."
A flight attendant said "the tower is down".
"This is the first time. It's never happened before in the 20 years I've worked here."
Fairfax's Drive editor Toby Hagon reported from on board a flight at Melbourne Airport that the plane's pilot said there was a queue of about 25 planes waiting to take off.
Passengers are advised to contact their airline for more information.
with Beau Donelly
No comments:
Post a Comment