Sydney Airport: Misery for thousands as eighty flights cancelled as wild weather sparks travel chaos

Up to eighty flights have been cancelled from Sydney Airport in a public holiday travel nightmare as the east coast is hammered with wild rain and wind. 

The airport has blamed bad weather and strong winds for the interruptions which has seen 45 flights cancelled from Sydney from 6am to 7:30pm. 

Up to 41 flights in to Sydney have also been cancelled 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,’ Sydney Airport said in a statement.

‘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 had plans to move to a single runway due to the wet and wild 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 eighty flights have been cancelled from 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 hammered with rain over the coming days, making for a very wet and miserable public holiday

Josh Clements, Head of Communications for Sydney Airport, told 2GB radio the decision to cancel the flights had been made overnight on Wednesday. 

‘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. 

It comes as severe thunderstorms and damaging winds wreak havoc in NSW on Wednesday, with similar storms possible for southern Queensland.

Ongoing flooding is also 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 currently 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 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)

Flash flooding river rises are expected from the possible rain after up to 70mm of rain fell in six hours on Wednesday in the Central West Slopes and the Riverina.  

Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra will be drenched on Thursday afternoon, with millions expected to take the day off to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

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

Widespread rainfalls of 20 to 40mm are on the forecast for northern and central NSW.

‘That will push into the already quite saturated catchments, and exacerbate and lead to further flood warnings,’ Mr Levesque told Daily Mail Australia.

‘The heaviest rain for northern NSW is between now and Thursday morning.’

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 up to 10mm of rain could fall on Wednesday, and between 15 and 25mm on Thursday. The rain won’t ease up in the NSW capital until Sunday.

Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra will be drenched on Thursday, with millions having the day off to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II

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 up to 20mm of rain forecast over Wednesday and Thursday. Thunderstorms are also likely.

Adelaide will see some showers on Wednesday but the South Australian capital 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 5 to 15mm of rain forecast for Wednesday, 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.