Tigerair, Virgin Jetstar and Rex all faced significant disruptions at Sydney Airport on Friday morning. (Seth Jaworski).
A power outage attributed to an issue with an electrical substation caused chaos at Sydney Airport’s domestic Terminal 2 on Friday morning, resulting in disruptions to flights operated by tenants Virgin Australia, Jetstar, Tigerair and Regional Express.
The outage, which lasted about three hours, meant airlines could not process passenger check-ins, nor could security screening be completed. Consequently, airlines were forced to delay or cancel several services from and to Sydney.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
To unlock all Australian Aviation magazine content and again unlimited access to our daily news and features, become a member today. A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
Access to the Australian Aviation app
Australian Aviation quarterly digital magazines
Access to In Focus reports via our app
Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
Daily news updates via our email bulletin
“Sydney Airport has identified an issue with a substation, which caused the power interruption and affected back-up power sources,” Sydney Airport said in a statement issued at midday.
“Sydney Airport apologises for any inconvenience caused by the power interruption.”
I bet they wish they had some pv panels and a Bosch solar storage system
Greg
says:
In the bizz it’s called a “single point of failure”.
I hope the builders of the new Sydney airport will be smart enough (up to date) to build a redundant mains power supply on the site.
Maybe Australia will join the 21st Century with regard to major infrastructure being supported by redundant power systems.
Peter
says:
Disaster Recovery Manual 1.01 … provide a second independent power supply. How can you have the backup on the same source? It’s basic! Is this a case of strip out costs, look after the profit, take a risk on the customers and say it was someone else’s fault?
Steve
says:
I suspect the airlines affected will be seeking compensation from Sydney Airport Corp (or Macquarie or whatever their name is). Would be interesting to find out just how much the decision to have the single point of failure in the power supply is going to cost.
Perhaps it was a business decision that a failure which may be expected to occur only once every 20 years would actually cost less upgrading the system with a form of redundancy…
Adrian
says:
So do we go for competition and let another company build/operate Badgerys Creek or do we go for two airports operated by one company (Single point of failure).
Adrian
says:I bet they wish they had some pv panels and a Bosch solar storage system
Greg
says:In the bizz it’s called a “single point of failure”.
I hope the builders of the new Sydney airport will be smart enough (up to date) to build a redundant mains power supply on the site.
Maybe Australia will join the 21st Century with regard to major infrastructure being supported by redundant power systems.
Peter
says:Disaster Recovery Manual 1.01 … provide a second independent power supply. How can you have the backup on the same source? It’s basic! Is this a case of strip out costs, look after the profit, take a risk on the customers and say it was someone else’s fault?
Steve
says:I suspect the airlines affected will be seeking compensation from Sydney Airport Corp (or Macquarie or whatever their name is). Would be interesting to find out just how much the decision to have the single point of failure in the power supply is going to cost.
Perhaps it was a business decision that a failure which may be expected to occur only once every 20 years would actually cost less upgrading the system with a form of redundancy…
Adrian
says:So do we go for competition and let another company build/operate Badgerys Creek or do we go for two airports operated by one company (Single point of failure).