Blackout freezes Australia's biggest airport

SYDNEY: The travel plans of thousands of Australians were disrupted Saturday by a power outage at Sydney's international airport.

Australia's busiest air terminal was blacked out for an hour and a half, crippling security screening and check-in and delaying "thousands" of passengers, a Sydney Airport spokesman said.

"The cause of the failure is under investigation," he told AFP, estimating that it would take "several hours" to get back on schedule. Back-up generators also took "some time" to come on, he added, compounding the problem. The reason for the generator problems was also being investigated, he said.