Jetstar Ballina-Sydney Flight Cancelled, Passengers Wait 7+ Hours

20th Jan 2016

Australian budget airline Jetstar is receiving some backlash from its passengers after it was forced to cancel Tuesday's flight between Ballina and Sydney was canceled and the passengers forced to wait about seven hours for another plane.

One woman, who was looking to pay a visit to some friends at Wollongbar, said she will think twice before she boards another Jetstar plane.

According to her, she and the other passengers were supposed to board the plane on Tuesday at 11:45 AM, but were told that there are some problems with the water onboard.

She said:

"They said they'd have to get an engineer to look at it and we'd have a two hour wait and we should fly out by 2:15 PM. About half an hour later they said the 11:45 AM Jetstar flight is cancelled and you will go by bus to Brisbane."

She and another 100+ unhappy passengers, many of whom missed their earlier appointments, were then loaded onto a bus to Brisbane.

The woman, who needs a walking frame to move around, further commented on the yesterday's turn of events:

"We spent two hours on a bus to Brisbane and then I had to walk a good way to get into the airport. Qantas staff in Brisbane offered me a wheelchair; they did everything they could, so I wheeled the wheelchair through the airport as I just needed some support. In Brisbane we were treated very well and the staff at Ballina airport did everything they could."

The woman and her fellow passengers finally boarded a Qantas plane at 5:55 PM, which landed in Sydney at 8:30 PM. They were supposed to arrive at around 1:10 PM, meaning they lost seven hours and twenty minutes.

Jetstar apologized to its passengers for the delay, saying:

"It's very rare for us to cancel a flight between Ballina and Sydney, but engineering requirements meant we were unable to operate this service. Our team looked at all options to get passengers to Sydney as quickly as possible including booking seats on other carriers through the Gold Coast.

A spokeswoman for the airline also added:

"Unfortunately there were no seats available on this occasion, so our team worked quickly to make arrangements for customers to travel via Brisbane."