Virgin Australia passengers were forced to bed down at Queenstown airport on Easter weekend, after their flight was cancelled with no replacement options.
Passengers returning to Sydney from New Zealand on Saturday evening instead had to sleep in the airport after an engineering issue delayed Virgin flight VA162.
A Virgin Australia jet.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
As some passengers were offloaded so the plane could operate under weight restrictions, the Virgin crew is understood to have reached its maximum allowable duty hours, which forced the airline to cancel the flight. Under Civil Aviation Safety Authority rules there are limits to the number of hours a crew can work.
“The safety of our guests and crew is always our highest priority,” a spokesperson for Virgin said.
“We sincerely apologise to our guests for the disruption to their travel plans.”
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Sydney-bound passengers stranded in Queenstown were unable to find accommodation on Saturday night because of the Easter long weekend.
“No accommodation provided or available in Queenstown so 100 people slept on the carpet at the airport,” one affected passenger said via email. “Isn’t that illegal?”
The replacement flight on Sunday was itself delayed, the passenger said, with the customers being told they would depart at 1.50pm New Zealand time. But after checking in, the flight didn’t leave until 5.20pm.
