Overview
- Airservices Australia directed wider spacing between arrivals and departures at Sydney to maintain safety after short‑notice sick and carer’s leave reduced controller availability.
- Roughly 25 to 30 primarily domestic flights were canceled and many others delayed, affecting services operated by Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia.
- Virgin and industry representatives warned of knock‑on delays across the national network, with potential effects flagged for Perth and Brisbane.
- Sydney Airport advised passengers to check flight status with their airline and said other airport operations continued as normal.
- Airservices apologized for disruptions and said it is recruiting to strengthen on‑call resilience, noting 91 additional controllers were endorsed in the past year with broader capability planned during 2026.