Passport System Clusterfuck Causes Massive Delays At Aussie Airports

International airline passengers are facing huge delays departing Australian airports this morning, after the nation-wide system used to verify passports was hit by a massive technical issue.

Travellers have been impacted by the issue at Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane airports, with large queues forming while staff manually check passport details.

Airlines are experiencing check-in delays due to a system issue. Check with your airline for latest information. Thanks for your patience.

— Sydney Airport ?? (@SydneyAirport) May 21, 2017

Airlines experiencing difficulty checking-in travellers for international services due to outage of Advanced Passenger Processing system.1/2

— Melbourne Airport (@Melair) May 21, 2017

@mdoaks79 Hi Michael, this is a nationwide Airline/Immigration system interface issue. Check-in has reverted to manual processing.

— Brisbane Airport ?? (@BrisbaneAirport) May 21, 2017

Passport control back up after more than 40 minutes. Melbourne airport is checkers. Flights are delayed @danziffer @abcnews @bencubby pic.twitter.com/qjR79A0Ze4

— The Backseat Driver (@backseatdriverz) May 21, 2017

New Zealand airports suffered similar problems, with both Auckland and Wellington airports reporting their “border clearance” processes have been impacted.

Check-in delays right now as Immigration NZ’s national system has gone down. Updates to follow – thanks for your patience this morning.

— Auckland Airport (@AKL_Airport) May 21, 2017

MORE: @WLGAirport says “the system that allows airlines to report on the border clearance process is down.” @SkyNewsAust

— James O’Doherty (@jmodoh) May 21, 2017

We’ll update this story as it develops.

Source: The Age / news.com.au.
Photo: @backseatdriverz / Twitter.