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Qantas has apologised after passengers on an international flight waited six hours for their plane to take off before it was eventually cancelled.
Flight QF93 to Los Angeles sat on the tarmac at Melbourne Airport on Monday night before travellers were sent home.
Passengers were told the flight was too heavy to take off due to the winds.
One passenger told Melbourne radio station 3AW the flight had already been delayed, which added to the frustration.
“We got on and there was just a whole lot of the usual delay announcements,” passenger Pip said.
“At about 1.30am, when everyone was getting quite frustrated at this point, we hadn’t had any food offered, they basically said to us the flight is too heavy for the runway space or something like that.
Pip said customers were offered the option to fly ahead of their bags before the service was cancelled and customers were offered taxi vouchers to go home.
She said passengers were offered bottles of water and bags of nuts during the delay.
“This isn’t their first rodeo, they didn’t have any contingency plan and they’re never on the front foot,” she said.
“You’ve got to get on the phone to them, you’ve got to chase them up, you’ve got to be the one that tries to get your compensation or get your complaint in.”
Fellow passenger Caitley said she travelled five hours interstate from regional NSW to make the flight.
“At first we were all okay… but by the end of it, everyone was very frustrated,” she told 3AW.
“We just wanted to get off, we were tired, there was no water, we weren’t even offered any food, we weren’t allowed to get out of our seats.”
Caitley said the pilot offered passengers updates every half-hour.
She said she sat at the airport for an hour before she took a taxi to accommodation in the city which was paid for by the airline.
“We didn’t get to bed until six o’clock this morning,” she said.
“We left home at 11.30am yesterday morning so it’s been a big journey to only travel 500 kilometres.”
Melbourne Airport was undertaking overnight works on the main north-south runway, which resulted in its length being temporarily shortened.
The airport has been undertaking runway works since November last year.
A Qantas spokesperson apologised for the inconvenience caused by the disruptions.
“The aircraft arrived late in Melbourne following a weather-delayed departure from the UK and then faced further issues including runway works and bad weather which impacted take off,” the spokesperson said.
“Passengers were provided refreshments on board, but further refreshments were not possible once the plane was preparing to take off.
“Qantas provided accommodation and transport for customers overnight and they will board a new flight Tuesday night.”
