Earlier today reports started flooding in from passengers at an airport in Queensland that they just…couldn’t go anywhere. It was later revealed that the cause of delays at Gold Coast airport was due to an IT outage.
Having started my day dropping my partner at Sydney airport at 6 am, taking 20 minutes to drive from the entrance to the departures gate alone, it’s clear that mayhem starts very early at Australia’s airports. On the Gold Coast, however, the chaos was just getting started.
Per a report from the ABC, which had a reporter coincidentally dropping a family member off at the airport in question, we learned that passengers were waiting three-or-so hours to check in, with airline staff having to revert to manual check-in.
The outage is affecting all check in counters and baggage claim carousels. #9News https://t.co/LcETf3U7Wp
— 9News Gold Coast (@9NewsGoldCoast) February 27, 2023
A spokesperson for Queensland Airports Limited, Carly Twyman, told the ABC she and her organisation were sorry to affected passengers, confirming with the publication that yes, Gold Coast airport was suffering an IT outage.
“Gold Coast Airport is currently experiencing an IT outage which is causing delays during check-in,” Twyman is quoted as saying.
“We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, we apologise for the inconvenience.”
News.com.au added to the above report that travellers at Gold Coast airport have reported hearing announcements over the loudspeaker that there is no information on when the system will be fixed.
It appears the outage is airport-wide, affecting check-in and baggage tagging, as well as baggage collection – basically everything that now runs on technology.
While it hasn’t been the most smooth-sailing for a post-COVID Aussie airport system, this is the first IT outage affecting an airport we’ve reported on since August, when a Qantas outage impacted flights around the country.
We’ll update this article as we learn more about the Gold Coast airport IT outage.