Airservices delay figures paint incomplete picture, airlines say

While Airservices has said only 2.1 per cent of total network delays in July were a result of ground delay programs from air traffic flow management (ATFM), the airlines have said this figure is likely much higher, as delays can ripple out more broadly across their operations.

“The figures Airservices continually refer to tell only part of the story. They appear to capture the initial delay when a ground delay program is imposed, but not the significant knock-on effects that can ripple across the network for the rest of the day,” said Beckett.

“An aircraft delayed at one airport can have consequences for multiple subsequent flights, disrupting schedules, crew movements and connections across the network. And behind every delayed or cancelled flight are passengers whose plans are disrupted.

“If Airservices is going to properly address this problem, we need a transparent and comprehensive measure of the disruption its capacity constraints are causing, including the network-wide and customer impacts, not just the initial delay.”

The accusation comes as Sydney Airport experienced disruptions on Friday due to “roster constraints” at air traffic control, with at least six flights cancelled and others facing delays of up to 90 minutes, while Melbourne Airport saw ground delays due to weather.

According to Airservices, the ATFM measures implemented at Sydney due to the staffing issues were cancelled at 8:15am following “improved air traffic management conditions”.

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“Minimal airborne delays were experienced through the remainder of the morning, with departure delays for domestic and international flights out of Sydney mostly under 10 minutes,” a spokesperson said.

“Additional ATFM measures have been enacted this afternoon for flights arriving and departing Sydney to manage demand and operational constraints.

“Airservices acknowledges the ATFM measures may have caused some disruptions to airline scheduling, and is working with airlines to reduce delays and the impact on passenger travel as much as possible.

“Airservices is enhancing our training pipeline to add further controllers to improve roster depth, has put resilience measures in place that make it easier to call on additional staff when needed, and is working to address rostering issues that reduce the flexibility of our workforce.”

Speaking before a Senate committee on Friday, Airservices deputy chief executive Peter Curran said events like Friday’s delays are recorded “as a matter of course”.

“Then there is a number of cancellations, and it takes a little bit of time to calculate exactly what the cancellations are. We think it’s about 14 inbound cancellations, but there’ll be a consequent number of outbound cancellations as well,” he said.

“And so, to get that data set right, we will attribute that to ourselves, and that will be published on our website. And we have a weekly process with the airlines and a mechanism where they can say, we don’t think that was quite right, and there’s a review process.

“So, we try to be as transparent as we can possibly be around that, but it’s very clear – where we have attribution, we put that on our column. We publish that on our website.

“At present, we’ve been having a weekly meeting with chief-level officers in Qantas and Virgin to talk to them and provide a weekly status update that says, ‘yesterday, we were 58 per cent attributable’, or whatever the case may be.”

As reported by The Australian, Curran told the Senate committee that 49 ATCs are employed in Sydney, with 41 required to be available for rostering; however, “long term unavailability medical issues” led to eight or nine of these controllers being unavailable.

“When we have a bit of short-term sickness like we had last night, it makes it very difficult to recover … we were one down in the tower this morning and that led to some significant delays,” he said, noting also that Airservices is looking to increase its ATC workforce from 1100 to 1200 by July 2028; 914 of these are presently available to work as ATCs, more than the 890 Curran says are needed.

Airservices is reportedly shuffling controllers between Kingsford Smith and Western Sydney Airports as required, with the potential for Sydney’s tower to be temporarily closed during curfew hours from 1 November and freight flights with curfew exemptions rerouted to WSI.

In its Australian Aviation Network Overview report for July 2026, Airservices had noted concerns about its own performance, saying July had been “a disappointing month with an increase in service variations and activation of GDP on three occasions due to Airservices constraints at Sydney Airport with flow-on network impact”.

“We acknowledge that we still have work to do to strengthen service resilience, particularly in Sydney. We are committed to improving the consistency of our performance while maintaining the pace of improvement across the national network,” the report read.

“It is likewise critical to assure our partners and the travelling public that safety is not compromised when issues with staffing levels occur, and safety remains our overriding priority.”

Airservices says it currently has around 120 trainees in its pipeline and is recruiting at its highest-ever rates.