Passengers at Melbourne Airport endured significant delays on Friday evening after a technical failure that affected most parts of the airport.
Grounded indefinitely @ Melbourne airport due to "an airport-wide technical failure" according to @VirginAustralia cc @theage pic.twitter.com/rnDjOGUMXi
— Julie Posetti (@julieposetti) October 7, 2016
Fairfax Media's Julie Posetti said she was told by Virgin Australia at the airport that the air bridge doors had locked shut, separating crew and passengers across the airport.
Her flight to Sydney was delayed for 90 minutes.
About 8.30pm, a Melbourne Airport spokeswoman said the technical issue was rectified, but she couldn't say what further delays the customers would have to face.
Ms Posetti said the doors were shut for one hour, causing significant delays.
"They have back-to-back flights that they are trying to board now," she said.
"I am at Gate 5 and there are three flights stacked for boarding."
@julieposetti Hi Julie, the team at Melbourne Airport are currently working to resolve issues with the access control system there as... 1/2
— Virgin Australia (@VirginAustralia) October 7, 2016
A Qantas spokesman said only one of its flights was affected.
"We had some passengers who had connecting flights, but they all made their flights," he said.
A Jetstar spokesman said the fault had caused "minor delays" lasting under 20 minutes.
A Melbourne Airport spokeswoman said the technical problem did not pose any safety or security issues.
She said the technical issue was to do with the "access control system" which affected different parts of the airport and "different doors".
She said the issue had affected terminals two, three and four.
Earlier, passengers reported security door malfunctions and power outages had left people stuck in planes.
Stuck on a plane! Melbourne airport security door malfunction. Dang! #melbourneairportmalfunction pic.twitter.com/7eskmiflh8
— Allan McRae (@AllanMcRae) October 7, 2016
😂😂😂. Power outage at Melbourne Airport @Melair. Planes stuck. There's a manual override... But wait for it... They don't know the code! 😂😂😂
— French (@nfFrenchie) October 7, 2016
At Melbourne airport's virgin terminal where they've 'lost access to the doors' and can't disembark or embark planes. Chaos.
— Jason Murphy (@jasemurphy) October 7, 2016
#Jetstar Staff putting bodies on the line. #MelbourneAirport #MEL https://t.co/tO39cvxHC1
— MEL_Air (@MelbourneAir) October 7, 2016