Sydney Airport outbound passengers are being processed manually in the international terminal, and one of two of the domestic terminals, as a technical issue causes chaos and delays.

Outbound flights, but not inbound flights, were experiencing delays.

Sydney Airport said the technical issue was affecting passenger processing at the T1 International and T2 Domestic terminals.

The other domestic terminal, T3, is operated by Qantas and was not experiencing an issue.

A “technical issue” at #SydneyAirport brought it to a standstill, with thousands stuck as “final boarding call” rang out 😧 pic.twitter.com/145C4mN1vW

— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) March 8, 2018

Sally Felke, general manager of corporate affairs at the airport, said T3 was “fully operational” and the problem in the other terminals was only affecting outbound flights.

“We are experiencing outbound delays while we fix this technical issue which we’re working to rectify as quickly as we can,” she said.

“We will start some manual processing so flights can start to move.”

Ms Felke thanked passengers for their patience.

“We know this is stressful … please check with your airline but we do expect delays.”

Virgin Australia said that “due to a technical issue” passengers were being processed at reduced capacity.

“Virgin Australia is holding flights to minimise any disruption to passengers and working to reaccommodate any affected passenger.

“There may be some delays as a result, however passengers are advised to arrive at the airport as planned for their upcoming Virgin Australia flights.”

Earlier this morning, travellers were urged to “avoid” the terminals.

“We’re advising passengers and visitors to avoid T1 and T2 until further notice,” a Tweet from Sydney Airport said at 6:08am.