IT failure brings Sydney Airport terminals to a halt

An unidentified "technology outage" brought Sydney Airport to a halt this morning, as the airport was forced to stop processing outbound passengers to deal with the problem.

Credit: @KatherineGriffo

The issues arose early on Friday morning and affected passenger processing at the T1 international and T2 domestic terminals. The T3 Qantas terminal was not impacted.

At the time Sydney Airport advised travellers to avoid the terminals "until further notice". 

The issue resulted in massive queues forming inside and outside the terminals.

Security was reopened at both terminals at around 6.45am AEDT, and passenger processing began in a reduced capacity shortly after. Delays for processing were expected to continue throughout the day.

Sydney Airport declined to provide the cause of the failure but confirmed it was an IT issue.

Passengers have reported being told the glitch related to a system that managed airport doors, alarms, and some cameras.

Just after 10am Sydney Airport said its systems were operating as normal.

"Our priority now is to ensure all passengers are safely on their way. We're sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for being so patient."

The problem did not impact inbound passengers.

It also did not appear to have an impact on flight times.

Hello early flight, hello IT failure @SydneyAirport #Sydney pic.twitter.com/JA95lRsK2Y

— Stephen Smiley (@StephenSmiley) March 8, 2018