Passengers waiting to fly out for an Easter holiday at Sydney Airport are again facing hefty wait times, while the chaos has also hit Melbourne Airport.

Staff shortages and the start of the school holidays has seen some passengers have to wait at least two hours to get through security. 

In Victoria, the end of the Grand Prix and a fault in a Qantas baggage belt this morning has not helped long check-in lines and extensive delays on day one of school holidays.

READ MORE: Commuters stranded with Sydney bus drivers on strike this morning

READ MORE: Airport delays continue across Australia's east coast

Those catching flights from Sydney and Melbourne are urged to get to the airport two hours before departure due to delays.

Brisbane Airport is also experiencing delays, with travellers waiting an hour in queues to pass security checks.

Qantas boss Alan Joyce told Today that COVID-19 was having a huge impact on staffing levels.

"At the moment the sick leave, the absenteeism is twice the level of the reserves," Mr Joyce said. 

"You have 15 per cent of cabin crew typically on reserve on backup, on standby, where you are getting up to 30 per cent of people not turning up because of COVID or close contacts.

"Managing that, we ask people to give us patience. We again apologise for it."

Mr Joyce said changes to rules for close contacts this week should help improve the situation.

READ MORE: NSW records a drop of more than 2000 new daily COVID-19 numbers

More people travelling than before

More than 87,000 passengers are expected to pass through Melbourne's Tullamarine airport today, marking the busiest day for departures at the airport in more than two years.

And the number of people travelling around Australia is expected to be higher than pre-COVID levels, Qantas has advised.

The number of Qantas and Jetstar domestic flights running will be 110 per cent of 2019 figures, flying around 500,000 passengers from this Thursday to Easter Monday.

A Sydney Airport spokesperson has warned delays could continue through Easter and Anzac Day.

"We're incredibly grateful to passengers for their ongoing patience and for treating each other and airport workers with kindness and respect," the spokesperson said.

"We have significant COVID-related staff shortages and we're also working to rebuild our workforce in a really tight jobs market.

"Unfortunately this is an industry-wide issue and airports and airlines around the world are experiencing similar challenges.

"The Easter and Anzac Day long weekends are going to be busy again, and we're advising travellers to arrive at least two hours before domestic flights and three hours before international."

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Virgin Australia said in a statement travellers are likely to experience longer delays than usual.

"Virgin Australia is gearing up to fly tens of thousands of guests over Easter in what is shaping up to be the busiest travel period since before the pandemic," the statement read.

"We encourage all guests flying domestically with us to follow the advice of airports and arrive two hours ahead of scheduled departure, and use online check-in.

"We appreciate the patience of all travellers as our team continue to work around the clock to assist our airport partners and help our guests get to their destinations on-time."

Considering the delays, travellers are advised to arrive at airports at least two hours before domestic flights and at least three hours before international flights.

Meanwhile, Adelaide Airport is also advising travellers if they have a domestic flight this week arrive at least two hours early.

Long queues have also been seen there over the weekend, with a security staffing shortage.

On Friday, Mr Joyce drew fire from angry customers when he appeared to blame them for contributing to the delays.

"I went through the airport on Wednesday and people forget they need to take out their laptops and they need to take out their aerosols," Mr Joyce said yesterday.

"So that is taking longer to get through the queue."

Over the weekend, Qantas carried 350,000 people on 2800 flights, Mr Joyce said.

"Next weekend, we're going to carry half a million people on Qantas and Jetstar alone and we are going to be putting as many staff as we can at the airports to help people get through this process."

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The mother of a young boy who nearly tumbled from a ride at The Sydney Royal Easter Show because he wasn't strapped in properly has described watching on in fear.

Four-year-old Tristan was on the ride at the show yesterday and as it began to rise, horrified onlookers realised he was unrestrained.

"Obviously you wait for them to come around and put the harness down, check on them …. so I was telling him to sit down and wait, the lady is going to put your harness on," mum Skylena Boustani told 9News.

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"Next minute the ride just started going, everyone just started screaming for the operator to stop the ride."

Ms Boustani said when the ride stopped her son started to lean forward and so she tried to keep him calm and still from the ground.

"Another parent with kids on the ride helped get Tristan down because his mum wasn't tall enough, neither was my husband," she said.

"We got Tristan to sort of climb down and jump in the other dad's arms."

Ms Boustani said she was in shock and staff member operating the ride appeared unsure of what to do initially.

"The ticket girl ran off, maybe to get some help, but no one ended up really coming over for a while. We had him down by then," she said.

READ MORE: Albanese responds after caught out by simple question

Ms Boustani claimed no one working on the ride or for the show came and checked on them once Tristan was safely on the ground.

"In a few more seconds, it would have done its jolt and he would have been thrown out of it because the ride itself goes up, and jolts, then down.

"I don't even want to think about it."

In a statement issued late last night, a spokesperson for the Sydney Royal Easter Show said the ride would be closed until a full investigation could take place.

"The safety of patrons at the Show is paramount and we have shut down the kids' Free Fall ride following a reported issue with a harness," it read.

"The safety systems of the ride functioned well to prevent any injury occurring and the ride will not operate again until a full investigation has been completed and the ride has been approved by specialist engineers."

Dentists are calling for oral health to be prioritised in the federal election fight as some Australians are reported to be waiting up to four years for dental procedures.

The Australian Dental Association has warned there is a large backlog of dental health procedures needing to occur as more dentistry issues are being seen among the population following COVID-19 lockdowns.

"There are a lot of really big problems," CEO of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Dental Association, Matthew Hopcraft, has told Tony Jones on 3AW.

READ MORE: How is the Australian government elected?

"We've had more than 200 days of lockdown in Victoria where people have had to defer their treatment because dentists were shutdown so we're seeing the impacts of that."

Dr Hopcraft said there were 150,000 people on the public waiting list for dental procedures in Victoria, with patients waiting more than four years in some areas.

"You can imagine what is going to happen to someone's oral health if the have to wait four years," he said.

Dr Hopcraft said the average wait time in the public dental system, which mainly serviced vulnerable people and those on healthcare cards, had jumped to 25 months.

He said the issue was partly caused by a maldistribution of dentists, with the public dental sector catering for about 30 per cent of the population, but only including around 10 per cent of dentists.

He has called for governments to do more to make working in the public sector more appealing to dentists, saying the area had been neglected by state and federal governments for too long.

Stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic has also contributed to the wait list, as more people grind their teeth.

Dr Hopcraft said dentists were reporting seeing lots more patients with broken teeth due to grinding than they were prior to the pandemic.

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A South Australian zoo has lost two its its beloved giraffes within a week of each other.

Monarto Safari Park said goodbye to Tambo and Kinky, described as "legends" of the park, last week.

Tambo was 21, the oldest male giraffe in Australia.

READ MORE: Albanese responds after caught out by simple question

Giraffe keeper, Vaughan Wilson, who took care of the pair for more than a decade, said it was "heart-wrenching" to lose them.

Tambo, a Rothschild's giraffe, was known for his "approachable" nature, the zoo said on Facebook.

He had an incredible 26 direct offspring, 50 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great-grandchildren.

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Kinky, who was 22, was known for having a kink in her neck – the result of a mishap when she was being born.

"When she was being born, her mother sat down – Kinky, therefore, probably got a bit squashed on the way out and ended up with a fairly large, significant kink in her neck," Mr Wilson said.

A fan of carrots handed out by visitors, when she died she was the oldest giraffe the park had ever had.

FULL COVERAGE: Federal Election 2022

Two of her daughters, Asali and Mtoto, live at the park.

"These two gentle giants have been incredible ambassadors for their species, educating visitors about the plight of their wild cousin and their legacy will live on for years to come," the park wrote on Facebook.

But a new giraffe face will soon be seen.

Keepers are in the process of training a cheeky young giraffe called Azizi, from Adelaide Zoo, to walk into a trailer.

He'll soon move over to Monarto to delight visitors.

ANALYSIS: Anthony Albanese takes the undesirable ticket of first gaffe of the 2022 election campaign, and this one was a doozy.

Faced with questions about the basic indicators of the nation's economy, the Labor leader couldn't identify the unemployment rate, which sits at 4 per cent, or the cash rate set by the Reserve Bank, which has been stable at 0.1 per cent for 18 months.

As well as showing a blinding lack of preparation for a campaign that will centre on the cost of living challenges facing Australians, the blunder also plays straight into the Coalition's hands.

READ MORE: Long delays at Sydney and Melbourne airports ahead of Easter chaos

One of the Prime Minister's key attack lines of this campaign is that Labor can't manage money.

The Opposition Leader knows full well this perception is a weakness for him, but rather than studying the numbers and making himself bulletproof, he's taken the vest right off and suffered a body blow as a result.

The gravity of the error was written all over his face after the press conference and the clean-up job started straight away with a mea culpa, and a promise to be better.

Election campaigns are already a minefield of long days, snubs from members of the public and some misunderstandings along the way.

FULL COVERAGE: Federal Election 2022

But leaders have to get the fundamentals right.

Anthony Albanese can't afford another slip like this in a six-week campaign.

He's lucky it happened early.

But the clip has already been turned into a Liberal Party ad that will be played over and over again until election day.