“Aircraft windshields are now a worldwide restricted item. We used to be able to replace a windshield in 12 hours, maybe 24. It took Jetstar nearly seven days to source last month,” he said.

Jetstar was marred by extensive operational issues at the start of September when half  its international fleet was grounded during the school holidays, leaving thousands of people stranded abroad. By the end of September, three of Jetstar’s 11 Boeing 787 Dreamliners were still out of operation. Jetstar’s woes also affected its domestic services, dropping one in every 10 flights last month – double the cancellation rate in August.

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Joyce said the difficulty of reviving the industry so quickly after it was grounded cannot be understated, referencing the lengthy process reviving the airline’s 12 A380s in California’s Mojave Desert and the extensive retraining process for the airline’s pilots.

“Waking up a single A380 is 4500 hours, or two months’ work. It requires 10 engineers to work for two months in the desert. Its 22 wheels and 16 brakes require replacing, its oxygen cylinders, fire extinguishers, Wi-Fi, all of it requires replacing. All of this is just to get one aircraft out of the desert,” Joyce said. Most then have to go through 100 days of maintenance before they’re ready to fly.

Joyce said Sydney Airport’s new owners should combine its domestic and international terminals to ease transfers and enhance operations, adding its separation continues to be his “biggest pain point”.

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