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Sydney Airport has been thrown into chaos with a shortage of air traffic control staff sparking dozens of flight cancellations.
At least 30 Qantas and Jetstar flights and ten Virgin Australia services were cancelled on Thursday.
Some planes have been forced to wait on the tarmac for as long as two hours.
It marks the worst disruption to air travel at the airport since the Covid pandemic.
Airservices Australia, which runs air traffic control, said the disruptions were caused by a smaller team.
Airlines for Australia and New Zealand chief executive Stephen Beckett said he had to wait more than half an hour.
'This is not an isolated incident,' he said.
'There have been ongoing and protracted issues with air services, ability to staff the air traffic control towers.
SydneyAirport has been thrown into chaos with a shortage of air traffic control staff sparking dozens of flight cancellations
The shortage affected Qantas and Virgin Australia flights on Thursday, with some planes forced to wait on the tarmac for as long as two hours (stock image)
'It's causing crush. It's causing consumers a great deal of frustration.
'It's incredibly frustrating that Airservices Australia has been unable to find enough staff to keep the airport running.
'When there are delays in or out of Sydney, it impacts the entire national network.'
Airservices Australia released a statement saying it had 'briefed airlines on the need for air traffic controllers to implement spacing intervals for aircraft arriving and departing Sydney today to safely manage operations while a number of our local staff are on short-notice sick and carers leave'.
Airservices said 91 traffic controllers had been hired in the last year and there had been fewer disruptions to services because of the staff shortages.
'Despite our heightened focus on holiday resilience, unplanned absences resulted in some ad hoc flow restrictions and service variations around Perth, Brisbane and Sydney,' a spokesman said.
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