Jetstar's Engineering Problems Cause Delays at Avalon Airport

1st Dec 2015

Hundreds of passengers who intended to fly out of Avalon had to change their travel plans as Jetstar cancelled two flights out of the airport due to engineering fault.

Jetstar first cancelled a flight scheduled for Sydney at 6 A.M. However, since the return flight from Sydney to Avalon was supposed to use the same aircraft, that one was cancelled as well.

This wasn't the end of the problems concerning this plane, however, as it was also scheduled to fly passengers on the newly established Gold Coast route. All of this led to a no less than a four hour delay as a new jet was being flown from Melbourne to Avalon.

Another flight, the one to Sydney at 9:05 A.M. was also two hours late on its departure, also because of an engineering issue.

A spokesperson for Jetstar explained today that most passengers have been moved to services later in the day, while some have been bused to the airport in Melbourne in order to help them get on the first available flight there.

The spokesman apologized for the delay, saying:

"We're flying another aircraft into Avalon from Melbourne Airport to pick up the rest of the day's flying and expect the schedule will get back on track this afternoon. While cancellations and delays on our Avalon flights are rare, we know they are frustrating and we're sorry for the inconvenience this has caused our customers."

Jetstar isn't known for delays when it comes to operating out of Avalon Airport. The airline had operated some 3000 services in and out of the airport here in the period between January and November and had a rate of cancellation of less than one per cent up until now, with nearly 90 per cent taking off within 15 minutes of scheduled time for departure.