Problems with the computer system that processes passengers arriving into Australia have caused delays across all airports in Australia. A 40-minute long video by ‘Oz by Drone’ showed passengers moving only a few metres. The glitch led to manual screening of passports of both inbound and outbound passengers at the Australian airports. The system has been down since 6am local time.
Thousands of airline passengers across Australia were delayed on Monday morning after automated SmartGate immigration technology malfunctioned at multiple major international airports.
SmartGate passport control machines work with e-passports and use facial recognition technology to check travellers’ identities.
The outage came at the worst time. About 10,000 people were due to arrive or partially arrived already at Brisbane Airport, because this is the exact time when all of the internationals come in.
Australia’s Border Force authority tweeted that additional staff have been called in to assist with the massive backlog at the Australian airports.
They said: “We’re working to resolve an IT systems outage impacting inbound and outbound passenger processing at international airports. Additional staff have been deployed to help minimise delays. Passengers are encouraged to arrive early to allow additional time for processing.”
A spokesman said on Monday afternoon, “A number of Australian Border Force (ABF) and Department of Home Affairs IT systems impacted by an earlier outage have now been restored,”
The Department is continuing work to bring all systems back online, ensure the integrity of the systems and resolve any ongoing issues.
