Severe weather leads to flight cancellations at Sydney Airport

Sydney, Australia - December 16, 2017: Aerial Sydney airport car park view.

Several flights to and from Sydney were cancelled last night after a severe storm battered the city and parts of regional New South Wales.

More than 40 millimetres of rain fell in Sydney’s CBD between the hours of 20:30 and 23:30, leading to flooding at Town Hall station and thousands of people being left without power.

Emergency services were inundated with calls with as many as 1,240 phoning in with reports of fallen trees, leaks and roofs blowing off.

Earlier in the afternoon a man diad after a tree fell on him whilst he was driving his car near Cowra.

Wind gusts of more than 100km/h were recorded at Sydney Airport leading to a number of domestic flights being cancelled.

The cancelled flights included:

  • Jetstar’s 10pm flight to Melbourne
  • Virgin Australia’s 9:30pm flight to Brisbane
  • Qantas’ 7:30pm flight to Perth

At one stage Sydney Airport had to ground all flights.

“Due to heavy storm activity, there have been flight delays, cancellations and diversions. Passengers are encouraged to check with their airlines regarding the status of their flights,” A Sydney Airport spokesperson said

Jetstar confirmed it had scheduled additional services to help those affected.

According to Sydney Airport data, no international flights were cancelled. Although rain and storms continue to batter the coast, no flights had been cancelled at the time of writing

Passengers also faced difficulty getting to and from the airport with several major train routes disrupted due to industrial action (including the T8 Airport Train).

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says more heavy rain is due, with heavy winds continuing well into Thursday.

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

sydney airport

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