‘Busiest day of year’: Aussies brace for travel chaos

Australia’s major airports are going to be flooded with travellers on Friday.

Brisbane Airport is expecting its busiest day of the year with footy fans flying to Melbourne to see the Brisbane Lions take on the Sydney Swans in Saturday’s AFL grand final, as well as Queenslanders returning home as the state’s school holidays wrap up.

School holidays will also kick off in NSW and continue into the second week in Victoria, with many travellers heading north.

“Friday would have been busy even without the Lions making the grand final due to the school holiday overlap, but now it is in record breaking territory,” Brisbane Airport spokesman Peter Doherty said.

“Airlines have added 40 additional flights across the period to cope with this surge in demand.”

About 62,000 passengers are forecast to travel through Brisbane Airport’s domestic terminal on Friday alone. The all-time record was 63,525 passengers on Friday, October 4, 2019. Post-pandemic, the record was 61,061 passengers on September 29 last year ahead of the Brisbane Broncos playing in the NRL grand final in Sydney, and the Lions in the AFL grand final in Melbourne.

Lions fans who have been unable to get on a direct flight from Brisbane to Melbourne are opting to travel via Sydney.

While Friday is the last day of school before holidays kick off in NSW, Sydney Airport is expecting it to be the busiest day of the holiday period for domestic travel. More 80,000 passengers are expected.

Sydney Airport chief executive Scott Charlton said: “We’re encouraging passengers to plan ahead and leave plenty of time to get to the airport and for those heading in from the western suburbs to jump on our website and familiarise themselves with the new Sydney Gateway motorway.”

Melbourne Airport will be busier on Friday than the MCG on grand final day, with initial forecast figures last week showing 114,000 passengers were expected to pass through.

With two interstate teams now playing, it is expected to be even busier.

For those flying out of the city, car parks are sold out on Friday so travellers without pre-booked parking need to consider other transport options.

As there are construction works currently underway to upgrade the airport’s terminal road network, Melbourne Airport recommends passengers allow an extra 30 minutes when travelling to the airport these school holidays.

“We have scaled back works on our road upgrades throughout the school holiday to accommodate the influx of passengers, but we know there will still be some impact to travellers,” the airport’s chief of ground transport Jai McDermott said.

“Our tip for passengers travelling to and from the airport over the next two weeks is to use the Terminal 4 Car Park and drop-off and pick-up zone where possible to avoid congestion.”

Brace for chaos

RMIT Aviation Academy operations manager Justin Brownjohn, who is also a former network controller for major airlines, explained “major sporting events wreak havoc for schedulers” and planning flights for grand final demand is not as simple as it seems.

“Given the grand final teams aren’t known until the last minute, airlines will make an estimated guess and often have multiple plans ready to launch,” he said.

“It’s not as simple as putting another flight on sale. Airlines need to find the aircraft, the crew, and sometimes the slots.

“In most cases, it will result in the cancellation of other services, which drives the exorbitant pricing we often see for sporting and major events.

“Airlines love a major sporting event where both teams are away teams – it can sometimes generate double the traffic from two different cities.”

Friday’s extremely busy travel day will come after Qantas union workers walk off the job at Melbourne Airport on Thursday – the first step in a larger nationwide strike against the national carrier.

The employees taking part in the industrial action are from Qantas’ Aircraft Maintenance Engineers teams.

As of midday on Thursday, 10 Qantas flights scheduled to arrive in Melbourne had been cancelled, as well as eight flights due to depart the city.

The Qantas Engineers’ Alliance, a union made up of the Australian Workers Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and Electrical Trades Union, said the industrial action will begin in Melbourne and spread to all major airports across the country during the next two weeks.

“It is highly likely to affect Qantas flights in all major capitals,” the union said on Wednesday evening.

AMWU national secretary Steve Murphy said the airline’s engineers were “undervalued, underpaid and under-appreciated”.

While the union warned of flight disruptions, a Qantas spokesman said the company was prepared.

“We’re putting contingencies in place and don’t currently expect this industrial action to have an impact on customers,” he said.

“We’ve held a series of meetings with the unions and made progress on a number of items. We want to reach an agreement that includes pay rises and lifestyle benefits for our people.”

Mr Brownjohn said although Qantas will likely protect flights associated with the AFL grand final, there may be cancellations to other routes.

“Given we are halfway through school holidays and approaching a long weekend in Victoria, any disruption is going to be difficult to recover from,” he said.

“Alternatives for passengers will be limited, especially because the flight schedule is already very tight around Friday afternoon and Saturday morning coming into Melbourne.

“If a flight is cancelled, passengers will likely be moved to remaining available seats that same day. That could mean a lengthy delay if you don’t hold status with your carrier or if you bought a low-cost budget airline fare, which won’t be prioritised for another service.”