Even before COVID, chilling in Sydney airport wasn’t a vibe. Seriously, who wants to eat a $10.00 ham sandwich at 6:00 AM next to a set of screaming baby quintuplets? Moreover, if that is actually your jam, then what sort of misery gremlin are you?
However, I’d now give away my gallbladder to make this airport better. Because currently, this joint is completely floundering. Also, it could potentially get a lot worse thanks to a strike. And soon.
How Bad Are Sydney’s Airport Flight Delays?
According to data compiled for CNN Travel, using flight tracking data from FlightAware, Sydney Airport has made some top ten lists for the wrong reasons. Between May 26 and July 19, it had the ninth most delays out of all of the global airports. To put a number to this problem, 34.2 percent of Sydney’s flights were set back.
Additionally, this airport had the sixth highest amount of cancelled flights. A whopping 5.9 percent of all of its departures were just cut.
Why Were Sydney Airport’s Flights Delayed?
There are three major reasons why Sydney airport sucked wet eggs between May 26 and July 19. As per the ABC, it was the school holiday season during this time period. This led to a whack of folks that were hungry for domestic and international travel heading to Sydney airport. It seems as if this service just wasn’t ready for all of these extra people.
Secondly, the weather has been really rubbish. In NSW, its residents experienced yet another ‘once in 100 years’ wet weather event that caused tons of rain, floods, and storms. There’s just no way that a place can get smashed with that much misfortune without flights being delayed and canned.
Finally, some airlines haven’t been doing the right thing for their own people. In 2020, Qantas illegally fired around 2000 ground crew workers. These people were never hired back. If Qantas were to rehire these workers, then there would be more people moving our baggage around, and thus, there would be fewer delays.
Related: What You Can Do If Your Flight Gets Cancelled
Related: How to Get a Row to Yourself on a Plane: An Airport Worker Taught Me the Secret
A Sydney Airport Strike Might Happen
The ground crew from the aviation service company Dnata want to strike. According to Australian Aviation, this effort is being supported by the Transport Workers’ Union. This union is behind such a strike because they’ve asserted that Dnata management is pushing a new agreement that “gives pay cuts to experienced workers.” Furthermore, they alleged that it’s “below award minimum conditions.”
This strike needs to be first approved by the Fair Work Commission. But if it does, a lot of airlines are going to take a punch to the gut. This is because Dnata handles the luggage of 20 airlines, including Qantas, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, and Ethiad, just to name a few. Moreover, the Herald Sun is reporting that this strike won’t just be happening in Sydney. It would take place in Brisbane and Melbourne as well.
Read more stories from The Latch and subscribe to our email newsletter.