Jetstar flight to Melbourne delayed by almost 30 hours; over 320 passengers affected

SINGAPORE — A Jetstar flight departing Changi Airport to the Australian city of Melbourne on Thursday evening (Dec 20) has been delayed for almost 30 hours, with passengers told that the flight will only leave Singapore at 1.30am on Saturday.

More than 320 passengers were affected by the delay, which Jetstar said was caused by “an engineering issue which required spare parts to be flown from Australia”.

Flight JQ8 was supposed to leave for Melbourne at 8pm on Thursday and one passenger told TODAY that the departure time was pushed back several times.

Publicity assistant Holly Matthews — who was travelling to Melbourne to visit her family over the holidays with her fiance — said that she was informed about the delay at 7.50pm on Thursday, about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure.

“Jetstar made an announcement that the flight will be delayed, and 30 minutes went by before they said that the flight was estimated to leave by 9.15pm,” the 24-year-old said.

“Then 9.15pm came and went, and they made another announcement that the flight will not be able to take off until 10pm. Obviously, people were getting unhappy and there were a few babies crying.”

Ms Matthews said that the plane's captain then came out and explained to the passengers that “lightning had struck the plane and damaged a part that is crucial in helping the engine get powered up”.

“(So) they were trying to find a replacement part, but (other airlines) didn’t have it.”

Ms Matthews added that as she was waiting for Jetstar to prepare the paperwork for insurance purposes, passengers were told that “the flight was going to be delayed for at least 24 hours and the flight will take off at 10pm on Friday night”.

She then chose to go home that evening instead of staying at the airport.

“For those who weren’t Singaporeans, they would give you a hotel stay of S$150 a night and S$35 for food. And if you were Singaporean, you could go home, I guess,” she said.

However, on Friday afternoon, Ms Matthews was informed via email that her Jetstar flight was delayed once more to 12am.

TODAY understands that later on Friday evening, the departure time was pushed further back to 1.30am on Saturday.

In response to TODAY’s queries, Jetstar said that it had offered passengers the option of moving to “alternative Jetstar services with meal vouchers and accommodation for those staying overnight, or a full refund”.

It added: “We understand delays are very frustrating and apologise sincerely to our customers who have been impacted by the delay, however safety is always our number one priority.”

Mr Matt Way, Ms Matthews’ fiance, said that he was “super frustrated and not happy” with the airline.

“Jetstar has not made it easy for us to amend our plans. If they had given us more notice today and let us know earlier (of another delay), we could have made alternate plans,” the 27-year-old said.

For her part, Ms Matthews said that she was initially sympathetic of the flight crew members “who were trying their best to answer everyone’s questions”.

“But I think after all the constant delays, now I’m feeling a lot less sympathetic. I can’t imagine (the frustration of) all those people who were supposed to be going home for the holidays,” she said.