The Aviation Historian — Issue 21 (October 2017)

Issue No 21 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 129

Australian Prime Minister during 1983–91.
Sydney Airport was back to operating
normally by 0930hr the following day; and
45min later the first international arrival, a
BOAC Vickers VC10 from Nandi, touched down.
Both TAA and Ansett quickly resumed normal
services, but it took the international operators
several days to get their schedules back to
normal. A Qantas shuttle service returned
to Sydney 200 staff that had been based in
Melbourne during the strike.
Passengers on Qantas service QF533 (San
Francisco—Sydney via Honolulu) were told
on boarding that their destination would be
Melbourne because of the strike, which was
in fact concluded before the aircraft reached
Australia. Sydney was not yet ready to accept
international arrivals, however, and the aircraft
overflew Sydney and landed in Melbourne. As
the aircraft awaited a parking gate, though, news
arrived that Sydney was now open. Much to
the chagrin of the passengers, especially those
ultimately bound for Melbourne, the aircraft was
turned around and took off for Sydney, to avoid
the crew running out of duty time. “If we had
waited to offload the Melbourne passengers, we
would have greatly inconvenienced the majority,
who were destined for Sydney”, explained a
Qantas spokesman.
The effects of the strike had not all been bad.
A DCA spokesman told the newspapers that the
unexpected emptying of Sydney Airport had

allowed more maintenance on the International

Terminal to be completed in four weeks than had

been possible in the previous six months.

Today Melbourne Airport averages nearly 600

movements a day, with almost 100 of those being

international flights. Over a week at the height

of the strike, some 23,500 passengers passed

through Tullamarine; today an average of more

than 82,000 passengers passes through the

airport every day.

ABOVE Singapore Airlines 747 9V-SIB shares Melbourne’s taxiway S with KLM’s first 747, PH-BUA; the latter was
hijacked a few weeks later by Palestinian terrorists on an Amsterdam—Tokyo flight, which ended without harm to
aircraft or passengers after landing in Dubai. BELOW Air traffic controllers “pushing tin” at Melbourne in the 1970s.

TAH

AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA/CASA/CAHS

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