National tech outage causes delays at airports across Australia

A major Australian Border Force outage has impacted airports across the country and led to significant delays processing passengers.

The technical outage is impacting SmartGate kiosks for inbound and outbound passengers at all international airports, including Sydney and Melbourne, an ABF statement said.

“Additional ABF officers are being surged into work areas to manually process passengers and provide as minimal disruption as possible,” the statement said.

“The issue is currently being rectified and systems are slowly returning online. We appreciate traveller’s patience as we continue to work through the issue.”

A Sydney Airport spokesperson said passengers are being processed manually and queues are longer than usual. No flights have been impacted.

“Passengers travelling today are encouraged to check with their airline regarding the status of their flight, and leave plenty of time when travelling to the T1 International Terminal,” they said.

A spokesperson for Melbourne Airport confirmed customers are experiencing delays, but not flights have been impacted.

More to come.

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