Sydney International Airport has been plunged into chaos with a major nationwide e-gate technical outage causing significant traveller delays, it can be revealed.
The Australian Border Force (ABF) on Saturday morning told SkyNews.com.au it was aware of a technical issue impacting SmartGates at the airport in the suburb of Macot, 8 km south of Sydney’s CBD.
“We are working to fix the issue as quickly as possible and have deployed additional officers to assist with facilitating travellers,” an ABF spokesperson said.
“We apologise for any delays passengers are experiencing.”
Sydney Airport in a statement released on Saturday confirmed the ABF was currently experiencing “issues” with e-gate machines for departing international passengers.
“All manual gates are currently staffed to speed up processing,” the statement on X (formally twitter) read.
Passengers who have a departing flight from T1 International have been urged to arrive early and allow plenty of time to avoid significant delays.
Meanwhile, furious travellers have on social media uploaded videos of the unfolding chaos where passengers have been left stranded.
The bizarre clips showed crowds expanding from the immigration gate to the opposite end of the terminal at Sydney.
“Flying international out of Sydney? There is a km long queue for immigration check,” one would-be traveller wrote on X.
“Sydney Airport was plunged into chaos,” noted another.
It’s understood Virgin and Jetstar flights have not been impacted by the delays.
Melbourne Airport and Perth Airport are also unaffected by the technical issue and travellers there are not subject to delays.
In a statement released to SkyNews.com.au on Saturday, a Melbourne Airport spokesperson confirmed the airport had experienced an issue in the morning although it has since been resolved.
“Melbourne Airport experienced an intermittent issue with the processing of outbound international passengers this morning due to a fault with Border Force SmartGates,” the spokesperson said.
“The fault has now been resolved and operations have returned to normal,” they said.