A security breach at Melbourne airport has caused delays on Tuesday morning, just over one month since armed federal police escorted Qantas passengers through the terminal in a similar incident.

All passengers in the Qantas terminal at Melbourne airport had to exit to be rescreened after a person inadvertently bypassed security without being inspected, a Qantas spokesperson said.

Flights were delayed after Qantas passengers were forced to be rescreened by security after a security breach at their Melbourne airport terminal on Tuesday.Credit:Jason South

“As a precaution, all Qantas operations were put on hold and passengers in the terminal are being rescreened, which is causing delays to some services this morning,” a Qantas spokesperson said.

Rowing Australia chief executive Ian Robson told 3AW said he arrived just after 6am for his morning flight to Canberra to find lengthy queues stretching to the nearby international terminal.

Robson said announcements at the airport told passengers about the security breach, which meant passengers who had already boarded planes had to disembark to be re-cleared by security.

“So they had to empty everybody out of terminal back onto the land side, as they call it, to go through the process again,” Robson said.

A Qantas spokesperson said the carrier was investigating how the incident occurred.

Last month, multiple passengers bypassed screening at Sydney airport in a security mishap that led to armed federal police escorting weary travellers through a Melbourne terminal.

The September incident occurred after passengers from a small regional airport entered Sydney airport without being checked, before one person boarded their connecting flight to Melbourne before they had been screened.

Once authorities realised a person on the airborne flight had not been checked, the entire plane was considered “unscreened” and 225 passengers and crew onboard were escorted through Melbourne airport security.

A Qantas spokesperson said it was investigating Tuesday’s incident.

“Safety is our number one priority, but we know this disruption is causing some inconvenience for our passengers, and we apologise for that,” a Qantas spokesperson said.

The Australian Federal Police have been contacted for comment.

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