ATSB preliminary findings include two near misses among four Sydney runway incidents

The ATSB is investigating whether the close calls shared common safety issues or contributing factors. No final finding has established that staffing shortages caused any of the individual occurrences.

What the ATSB has found so far

On 27 July 2026, a Qantas Boeing 737 was involved in a conflict with a landing QantasLink Dash 8 on runway 34L. Air traffic control detected the conflict and stopped the Boeing before it entered the runway. The ATSB classified the occurrence as a serious incident.

On 9 August 2026, a Virgin Australia Boeing 737 beginning its take-off roll encountered a Qantas Boeing 737 crossing the runway; the Virgin crew rejected the take-off. The ATSB is investigating that occurrence as a runway incursion. The same day, a Jetstar Airbus A320 came into close proximity with a Qatar Airways Boeing 777 being towed, forcing both aircraft to stop; a Jetstar cabin crew member was injured.

The ATSB is also investigating a 16 August taxiing conflict involving Virgin Australia and Qantas Boeing 737s, and an 18 August conflict involving a Qantas Airbus A321 and a Boeing 737. A 25 August event involved incomplete traffic information being passed to a Jetstar A320 before pushback. In the 18 and 25 August cases, the ATSB said safety defences remained effective and classified the events as incidents rather than serious incidents.

A new report cited by the Australian Financial Review found runway incursions and near collisions at Sydney Airport were running at about 20 per cent above national averages.

Controller shortage behind restrictions

The findings come as Airservices Australia has used traffic-flow restrictions to manage controller shortages at Sydney. On 11 September 2026 it imposed measures at the airport "due to roster constraints" and lifted them at 8:15am, with delays of no more than 10 minutes expected afterwards.

About 14 inbound flights were cancelled and morning delays exceeded an hour. Airservices deputy chief executive Peter Curran told a Senate committee the disruption followed unplanned overnight absenteeism. "Last night, at relatively short notice, we had some unplanned absenteeism, which we weren't able to recover from," he said.

Sydney has 49 employed air traffic controllers. Forty-one are required to be operational, and eight were unavailable because of longer-term absences, leaving little capacity to absorb a sudden gap. On 10 September 2026, Qantas and Virgin Australia each reported six Sydney cancellations, with dozens of other flights delayed.

Airservices said Australian airports recorded 2,536 cancellations in the year to 31 August 2026, of which 121 were attributed to Airservices, including 103 at Sydney. That equates to roughly one Airservices-attributable cancellation every three days nationally.

Chief executive Rob Sharp has said the shortage developed during the COVID-19 pandemic after Airservices offered early retirement to controllers nearing retirement age. He has stressed that training replacements takes considerable time. Airservices said it endorsed 91 additional controllers nationally over the last 12 months, exceeding a target of 85, and installed a new Sydney Tower simulator to increase training capacity.

Airservices has said safety is not being compromised by the shortage, with traffic-flow restrictions used to reduce aircraft movements when staffing cannot support normal capacity. Sharp said: "We put in place measures that reduce the traffic levels to ensure safety, but this can lead to flight delays."

Reuters reported that several controllers on duty during a July near collision at Sydney had been flagged as facing a high risk of fatigue, citing internal records and a call recording.

What happens next

The ATSB's investigations into the runway occurrences continue, and no final finding has established that staffing shortages caused any of the individual occurrences. Airservices said it plans to make its resilience level more broadly available during the course of 2026.