“We thank travellers for their patience during this time,” an ABF spokesperson said.
Sydney (Australia), December 1, 2025, BNN Web Staff: International passengers across Australia experienced significant delays today after a nationwide outage disrupted the country’s passport processing system.
The technical failure brought operations to a halt at major airports, with Melbourne and Sydney facing the longest queues. Both inbound and outbound travellers were left waiting as lines stretched through terminals.
With automated systems down, Australian Border Force (ABF) officers were forced to switch to manual processing. The backlog eased only after the system was restored later in the afternoon.
ABF confirmed that the cause of the outage is still being investigated.
“We thank travellers for their patience during this time,” an ABF spokesperson said.
Earlier, Melbourne Airport reported being informed of the nationwide disruption affecting all passenger processing.
“ABF is processing passengers manually, and we are prioritising flights to manage passenger flow,” a spokesperson said, urging travellers to remain patient as the issue was resolved.
