1st Jetstar flight from Melbourne canceled
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia » Jetstar, the budget airline owned by Qantas Airways, canceled its inaugural flight between the southern city of Melbourne and Honolulu due to a mechanical problem, an official said.
Passengers were boarding the Airbus 330 airliner at Melbourne airport on Friday afternoon when "a mechanical problem" was detected by engineers during a routine check, Jetstar spokeswoman Simone Pregellio said.
The flight was rescheduled for yesterday morning while the fault was rectified and the 280 passengers either returned to homes in Melbourne overnight or accepted complimentary hotel accommodation, Pregellio said.
The repaired aircraft commenced Jetstar's inaugural flight at 7:45 a.m. local time yesterday, she said.
The delayed departure created disruptions for 90 passengers in Honolulu who were booked on the return flight yesterday morning.
Pregellio said 25 of these were rescheduled on a Qantas flight yesterday morning to Sydney, 500 miles northeast of Melbourne, and the remainder were provided with day accommodation until the return flight departed late yesterday, she said.
Pregellio said the high-profile cancellation of the airline's latest expansion into international travel had not triggered any booking cancellations for future flights.
Jetstar had flown more than 50 international flights since expanding from Australian domestic services on Nov. 23 and had never before grounded a flight due to mechanical problems, she said.
"It's very disappointing for this to happen on our first flight, but we're an airline and mechanical issues do happen," Pregellio said.
Pregellio declined to detail the problem, citing company policy.
Jetstar commenced flights from Sydney to Honolulu three times a week on Dec. 27.
The Melbourne-Honolulu services are twice a week.
Hawaii is Jetstar's fifth international destination after Bangkok, Phuket, Thailand, Bali and Vietnam.