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Flights from Perth Airport have resumed and carriers are working to clear hundreds of passengers who were stranded due to a refueling problem yesterday.
A serious refueling problem at a WA terminal caused the cancellation of 68 international and domestic flights yesterday morning, closing all four terminals for the first time in history and stranding thousands of passengers.
The problem was resolved around 2pm yesterday, but the backlog of flights left passengers stranded for more than 12 hours.
“It’s not right for an airline to leave you stranded and not inform you – I left the house and now I don’t know if I’m going to sleep in this airport,” a passenger told 9News.
“So that’s not good, that’s not good, in my opinion.”
One couple told 9News they weren’t told about the changes to their planned departure for hours.
“We weren’t even told our flight was delayed until three hours after we were supposed to leave,” they said.
“So it was just very disappointing.”
Perth Airport told 9news.com.au that all delayed flights were cleared yesterday evening and it was up to the carrier to reschedule flights.
International flights scheduled to operate last night and this morning are expected to be cleared this evening, with the exception of one Qatari flight.
Virgin Australia and Qantas said some flights were delayed following yesterday’s refueling problems, but it was “business as usual” today.
9news.com.au has contacted Jetstar for comment.
But Paddy Spowart, who was due to fly home from Bali yesterday, said Today he has not received a message when he can catch the next flight home.
“We haven’t heard anything from the airline, no emails, nothing at the airport from the airline. So everything was completely quiet,” he said today.
He said the airline did allow him to rebook, but the earliest flight he could catch was Tuesday.
“No compensation, no nothing. No apology.”
The delays were caused by an outage due to “low pressure” in the fuel systems and caused a domino effect across Australia.
Some passengers were left waiting for more than six hours across the country in Sydney as the delays had a knock-on effect.
“It’s frustrating because everybody’s shifting the blame, but let’s forget where the blame is, there’s no blame, and take care of your customers and then decide if later,” Eric Hees of Vancouver told 9News.
Experts were called in and the fuel system was eventually repaired and tested after 12 hours of chaos.
“The issue wasn’t their ability to land or take off from Perth Airport, it was their ability to take on fuel,” Perth Airport chief executive Jason Waters said.
“Looks like we’ve sucked air into the distribution system. Even after we identified the fix, there was a period of time to be able to air it out,” he said.
The problem meant planes arriving at the airport were unable to refuel or depart from the Western Australian city, resulting in almost 70 regional, domestic and international flights being affected.
The Qantas Dreamliner from London to Perth was forced to land at Karratha Provincial Airport, more than 1,000 kilometers away.
The flight then stalled on the runway and was unable to disembark passengers as the desert city has no international service.
One passenger, Michaela West, had booked to travel to the UK to see her dying father, who had two months to live after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
After her flights were canceled, she rebooked for a flight tomorrow, but she’s $1,500 out of pocket until the airline reimburses her.
“I just have to get back out there. It’s heartbreaking,” she said.
“I can see it’s getting worse already, I just want to get back out there while it’s with him.”
Another stranded passenger waiting for a flight in Sydney told 9News they waited at the airport for almost seven hours to find out if they could fly.
A spokesman earlier said airlines had been advised not to send planes to Perth Airport until further notice unless they had enough fuel for a return flight.
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