Up to 80 flights have been cancelled at Sydney Airport in a public holiday travel nightmare as the east coast is hammered with wild weather.
The airport has blamed torrential rain and strong winds for 45 flights being cancelled from Sydney between 6am and 7.30pm.
Up to 41 flights into Sydney have also been axed in bad news for travellers who planned to take advantage of Thursday’s National Day of Mourning.
‘In anticipation of bad weather today, domestic airlines advised overnight that some services would be affected,’ a Sydney Airport spokesperson said.
‘Passengers are advised to check with their airline regarding the status of their flight.
‘Passengers who are travelling today are recommended to arrive two hours prior to domestic flight departures, and three hours for international services.’
The airport plans to move to a single runway due to the wet weather with services scheduled to return to normal by Thursday afternoon.
AirServices Australia released a statement assuring customers weather conditions were being ‘constantly monitored’ with ‘parallel runway operations to resume at Sydney Airport as soon as conditions permit’.
Up to 80 flights have been cancelled at Sydney Airport in a public holiday travel nightmare as the east coast is hammered with rain (pictured, lines at the airport)
Much of Australia’s east coast is set to be hit with heavy rain over the coming days
Josh Clements, Head of Communications for Sydney Airport, told 2GB radio the decision to cancel the flights had been made overnight.
‘The alternative was to run the gauntlet and let people turn up and be disappointed,’ he said, adding the affected airlines – Jetstar, Qantas, Virgin and Rex – are working to put customers on new flights.
Mr Clements warned that Friday would be even busier with the start of the school holidays with up to 2.4million people expected to travel though the airport.
The cancellations coincide with the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne on Saturday, with Qantas saying it would put on extra flights to get as many Sydney residents to the clash between the Geelong Cats and the Sydney Swans.
It comes as severe thunderstorms and damaging winds caused havoc in NSW on Wednesday, with similar storms possible for southern Queensland.
Ongoing flooding is expected for parts of NSW, Queensland and Victoria, the Bureau of Meteorology said, with several warnings issued for each state.
The bureau said a deep low pressure system is building over northern NSW with possible heavy rainfall for the Mid North Coast and Northern Rivers – with 70mm of rain forecast to fall over NSW throughout Thursday.
Up to 41 flights into Sydney have also been cancelled in bad news for travellers who planned to take advantage of Thursday’s National Day of Mourning (pictured, Sydney Airport on Thursday)
A flood watch warning is current for north-west, central west and south-west inland rivers in NSW. The wet weather is a result of a low pressure system moving across Australia’s south-east.
Port Macquarie on NSW’s mid north coast is in for a massive drenching with between 45 and 85mm of rain forecast over the next three days.
Weatherzone meteorologist Felix Levesque said the low pressure system was progressively moving towards the east coast of NSW and Queensland.
Ongoing flooding is also expected for parts of NSW, Queensland and Victoria, the Bureau of Meteorology said, with several flood warnings issued for each state
The meteorologist said significant rainfall would be seen over Thursday and Friday along the east coast from Batemans Bay up to south-east Queensland.
Parts of NSW’s mid north coast could see 80mm of rain fall over the coming days.
In Sydney, between 15 and 25mm is predicted to fall on Thursday. The rain won’t ease up in the NSW capital until Sunday.
Melbourne will have a dry public holiday on Thursday, but the rain will start to fall on Friday into Saturday for the AFL Grand Final.
Brisbane won’t escape the wet weather with rain continuing on Thursday. Thunderstorms are also likely.
Adelaide is mostly in for a dry end to the week, with the rain to start back up again on Sunday.
Hobart will have a wet weekend with most of the rain to fall on Friday.
Those living in the nation’s capital are in for a wet week with the sun only coming out on Sunday.
Meanwhile on the other side of the country Perth will see some showers on Wednesday but an otherwise dry and sunny end to the week.
Temperatures will soar in the Northern Territory with 35C days forecast for Darwin.
