Virgin has begun boarding at least four flights in the last 10 minutes at Sydney Airport, with a staff member telling customers that its earlier “ground stop” has ceased – but warned the issues may not be over.

Departure screens remain down, and customers are being encouraged to “check Google” for their flight times.

“The ground stop has ceased, and we’re back and running,” a Virgin staff member told customers just before 5pm over the PA at Sydney Airport.

“I would suggest it’s intermittent. So just be patient with us as we get everything started again… Just be mindful of what announcements are made for your flight as there may be some delays or further delays. So our ground stop has now ceased and we’re back into operation. Thank you for your patience.”

Sydney Airport’s 11pm curfew, combined with a lack of spare capacity in landing slots, could mean flight disruptions take days to sort out if flights are delayed further due to this outage.

To make matters worse, the IT outage has occurred during peak Friday evening travel time, as passengers return from business trips or jet off on holidays.

A similar situation occurred back in February, when bad weather saw flights into Sydney cancelled, stranding thousands of Taylor Swift fans who had flown into Melbourne for the pop star’s concerts. On that occasion, with flights fully booked, the “next available” flight for many passengers was at least two days away.

But given the relatively short ground stop so far, this may not be as bad.