Australian airports plunged into chaos after 'nationwide systems outage'

Australian international airports have been plunged into chaos as a "nationwide systems outage" within the Australian Border Force (ABF) causes huge delays and extended check-in times.

It's understood travellers are facing lengthy delays to check-in for international flights at Melbourne Airport, with reports other hubs are also affected.

A spokesman for the airport said the outage is affecting all airlines.

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"We do have quite long lines at international check-in at the moment," Melbourne Airport's Andrew Lund told Nine radio station 3AW.

"The problem is there's a systems outage with the ABF, we understand it's a nationwide outage and it's affecting all airlines.

"Check-in is still happening, but it's just happening a lot slower than it typically would."

Lund was unable to pinpoint the issue but said the problem is affecting other airports too.

"All I know is that it's an issue on the ABF's end and it's impacting (how) airlines would typically communicate with the ABF," he said.

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The ABF told 9news.com.au it is urgently working to rectify the issue.

"The Australian Border Force (ABF) can confirm our service provider who manages the Advanced Passenger Processing systems (APP) is experiencing an IT outage," a spokesperson said.

"The system outage is affecting the APP in all international check-in points.

"We are working with the service provider to assist with resolving the matter urgently.

"The ABF will revert to manual processing of passengers where applicable."

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