Minister calls in Airservices CEO over Sydney Airport fiasco

By Andrew Curran.

Australia's Federal Transport Minister, Catherine King, has told the CEO of Airservices Australia that continual disruptions at the country's busiest airport, Sydney, stemming from a shortage of air traffic controllers are unacceptable.

King met with CEO Rob Sharp in Canberra on August 10 following several days of significant delays at Sydney (SYD) and two serious ground incidents.

"I have made my expectations clear that Airservices must carefully manage the situation at Sydney for the rest of August," King said.

Airservices Australia is responsible for managing air traffic within the country's airspace, including staffing air traffic control towers. However, there has been a shortage of controllers since a pandemic-era exodus five years ago.

Three consecutive days of disruptions at Sydney have thrust the problem into the spotlight, but it is not a new issue.

A recurring and persistent problem

At a recent aviation summit in Adelaide, Stephen Beckett, CEO of trade group Airlines for Australia and New Zealand (A4ANZ), said there was an ongoing failure to adequately staff air traffic control towers around the country.

"It's not just the one-off," Beckett said. "We know there are many factors why disruption occurs, but this is ongoing and persistent."

Beckett's comments followed disruptions in mid-July at Sydney caused by a shortage of air traffic controllers.

Sydney Airport processed more than 42.5 million passengers in calendar 2025 and more than 20.7 million passengers in the first six months of 2026. Aero South Pacific's Sydney Airport Brief notes that 50 scheduled airlines use the airport, which sees around 2,800 weekly aircraft departures.

Speaking to reporters after yesterday's meeting, Sharp said that rather than compromise safety when controller shortages occur, Airservices starts to delay aircraft movements. He described the delays as the "cost" of maintaining high safety standards.

Safety standards called into doubt by recent incidents 

However, two recent incidents at Sydney Airport have called those safety standards into question, delays notwithstanding.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has opened an investigation into a July 27 incident in which an air traffic controller cleared a Qantas B737-800 to cross a runway while a QantasLink DHC-8-Q400 was on its landing roll on the same runway.

Air traffic control quickly identified the conflict and alerted both aircraft. The Boeing stopped before the runway holding point. Both aircraft were operating scheduled passenger services, and the ATSB has classified the incident as serious.

During the controller shortages over the weekend, a taxiing Jetstar A320-200 and a Qatar Airways B777-300ER under tow came within 50 metres of colliding, forcing the Jetstar pilots to brake suddenly and injuring a member of the cabin crew.

"Our aircraft was following instructions from air traffic control when the pilots were forced to brake firmly after another aircraft came into close proximity," a Jetstar spokesperson said.

The two aircraft reportedly came to a stop nose-to-nose after the B777's towbar shear pin broke.

"We are reviewing the incident," an Airservices Australia spokesperson said. The following day, an air traffic controller was stood down.

It is understood that the tug driver may not have adhered to air traffic control instructions. That individual was also stood down the day after the incident.

Jetstar, which praised its pilots' quick reactions, has referred the matter to the ATSB.

Doing our best, says Airservices Australia

Airservices Australia says it is working to improve its performance.

"We are building a larger pool of standby air traffic controllers to increase our staffing contingency at Sydney Airport, reduce overtime and deliver stable rosters," Sharp said.

"At Sydney, we have endorsed eight new tower controllers over the past 18 months, continued recruiting experienced and trainee controllers, and installed a new Sydney Tower simulator to significantly increase our training capacity."

"Disruptions due to air traffic control across the aviation network have reduced by 86% over the past financial year. Airservices attributable ground delays fell by 13% and accounted for less than 0.1% of total network delays," Sharp added.

"However, we understand that any delay has an impact on passengers and we are committed to making further improvements."

At the time of publication, Tuesday morning, Sydney Airport is operating normally.

Photo: Sydney Airport.
Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com