ATSB investigates fourth aircraft conflict at Sydney Airport in less than a month

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is investigating another ground conflict at Sydney Airport involving two Qantas aircraft—the fourth such event at the airport in less than a month.

The latest incident occurred on Tuesday when a Boeing 737 arriving from Melbourne and an Airbus A321 preparing to depart for the Gold Coast received potentially conflicting taxi instructions. As the A321 approached a taxiway, its crew saw the 737 approaching from the left and stopped normally, allowing it to pass ahead.

The ATSB stressed that there was no immediate collision risk and classified the event as an “incident” rather than a “serious incident”. Nevertheless, investigators will examine recorded data and interview the pilots and air traffic controllers to determine whether it shares contributing factors with three other recent events at Sydney.

Those incidents included a runway conflict involving Qantas and QantasLink aircraft on 27 July, followed on 9 August by a runway incursion involving Virgin Australia and Qantas flights and a separate conflict between a Jetstar Airbus A320 and Qatar Airways Boeing 777.

The repeated incidents have increased scrutiny of staffing at Sydney’s control tower. Union representatives claim rosters frequently contain gaps and depend heavily on overtime, with leaked figures reportedly showing that eight of the airport’s 17 controllers worked more than 200 overtime hours during the past year.

Airservices Australia maintains that safety is not compromised by staffing shortages because traffic levels are reduced when necessary, although this can cause delays. The agency plans to increase staffing, expand its standby pool and reduce reliance on overtime.

A preliminary ATSB report on the latest incident is expected within six to eight weeks.