Once again, someone in Australia's ATC organization didn't show up for work, and their roster is so stretched that the affected console will be unattended for the shift, so a block of airspace between Ballina and the Sydney Northern Beaches is under TIBA procedures.
TIBA means ATC doesn't tell any airliners about traffic conflicts, and all controlled airspace reverts to uncontrolled. "Don't bother calling us, nobody's listening."
TIBA is usually what you expect overflying war zones where there's no ATC capability. It's not what you expect from a technically advanced first-world country with a stable government.
Flights will be cancelled due to this: Airlines will risk-assess and decide that mid-air collision risk from spending an hour following GPS airways in uncontrolled airspace in one of the world's busiest air corridors is too high, and they'll stay on the ground.
Australia's semi-privatized ATC system is a failed experiment. Air Services is a broken organization that's incapable of doing its job. It needs to be nationalized. #avgeek
