On 27 November Perth Airport – Western Australia’s primary international gateway – reported 84 delayed flights and four cancellations, affecting up to 17,000 passengers and rippling across Australia’s interconnected aviation network. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide also felt the squeeze as airlines juggled aircraft and crews.
With roughly a quarter of daily movements disrupted, airlines faced gate congestion, crew re-assignments and aircraft repositioning headaches. Tourism bodies warn that repeated reliability issues erode passenger confidence and could dent Western Australia’s visitor economy, already battling high operating costs.
![Perth Airport logs 84 delays and four cancellations amid nationwide schedule disruption]()
For business travellers the impacts are tangible: missed connections, re-ticketing costs and lost billable hours. Companies should monitor flight-status APIs in real time and ensure corporate cards have extended travel-disruption coverage, including accommodation and meal caps.
Industry analysts link the spike to a convergence of summer thunderstorms, crew absenteeism and legacy rostering systems that lack real-time optimisation capability. Calls are growing for CASA and Airservices Australia to accelerate reforms that would allow more flexible slot management during weather events.
Perth Airport says it will work with airlines to review stand allocation and has hinted at fast-tracking a second satellite pier in its Terminal 1 expansion to ease peak-hour pressure. In the meantime, travellers are urged to allow extra connection time and to opt for morning departures where possible.
With roughly a quarter of daily movements disrupted, airlines faced gate congestion, crew re-assignments and aircraft repositioning headaches. Tourism bodies warn that repeated reliability issues erode passenger confidence and could dent Western Australia’s visitor economy, already battling high operating costs.
For business travellers the impacts are tangible: missed connections, re-ticketing costs and lost billable hours. Companies should monitor flight-status APIs in real time and ensure corporate cards have extended travel-disruption coverage, including accommodation and meal caps.
Industry analysts link the spike to a convergence of summer thunderstorms, crew absenteeism and legacy rostering systems that lack real-time optimisation capability. Calls are growing for CASA and Airservices Australia to accelerate reforms that would allow more flexible slot management during weather events.
Perth Airport says it will work with airlines to review stand allocation and has hinted at fast-tracking a second satellite pier in its Terminal 1 expansion to ease peak-hour pressure. In the meantime, travellers are urged to allow extra connection time and to opt for morning departures where possible.
