A near miss between two taxiing passenger jets at Sydney Airport has prompted a review of air traffic control procedure.

On July 17 last year, an Airbus A330 carrying 13 crew and 163 passengers bound for Melbourne started its takeoff without clearance by air traffic control, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said.

At the same time, a Boeing 747 had been cleared to cross the same runway.

The Airbus crew aborted its take-off when advised by the tower they did not have clearance.

In its report into the incident, the ATSB says the crew of the Airbus felt under pressure because the flight had been delayed, had agreed to change runways and had misunderstood an assigned departure heading as a clearance for departure.

"The use of a combined line-up and wait instruction with a departure instruction, as permitted by the Australian Manual of Air Traffic Services, can cause confusion with flight crews," the report said.

"Air Traffic Control did not challenge the crew's non-readback of the wait instruction when told to line up and wait on the runway."

The ATSB said the procedure would be reviewed.