Global outages wreak havoc at Brisbane Airport
Queensland passengers have been left stranded at Brisbane Airport after a global IT outage wreaked havoc with airport and airline systems.
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Queensland passengers have been left stranded after a global IT outage wreaked havoc with airport and airline systems.
Jetstar check-in was thrown into chaos on Friday afternoon, with all flights grounded until services become available.
All Jetstar flights were unable to leave since about 3pm.
"We are flying blind, we don't know how this will affect other flights," Jetstar announced on Friday night.
Hundreds were stuck waiting in massive lines at the Jetstar check-in.
Jetstar staff were handing out water bottles while many sat on their suitcases and waited.
Ruby Cheesman said she had been waiting for more than three hours to check-in.
“It’s been pretty frustrating, the other person we were with went upstairs because they just had carry on so we have been split up,” she said.
“We had to sit downstairs just bored with our bags which is no fun.”
“I know it is out of their control and there is only so much they can do. But hopefully we get home. We didn’t realise how bad it was at the start, we thought they’d crash for a little bit and be back up.”
Ms Cheesman said their flight was meant to leave at 4.30pm but failed to do so.
Since the outage there were announcements over the speaker frequently.
“We are currently experiencing a global technology outage which is impacting our systems here at the airport,” the announcement said.
“Brisbane Airport appreciates your patience while we work to restore the systems.”
Jetstar also made regular announcements saying to alleviate pressure to go through security with only carry on bags if they have yet to check in.
“The announcements were quite constant, there’s been one every ten or so minutes,” Ms Cheesman said.
Other passengers were concerned they would miss their international flights.
Anita Leshevic said she was travelling to Albania on Saturday but had to travel to Sydney on Friday night.
“We drove from Hervey Bay and were going to Sydney,” she said.
“We started to panic when we got here. Everyone said we might have to buy another ticket but we aren’t prepared to do that.”
Stranded passengers whose flights have been cancelled were left scrambling for accommodation.
“We got here to check in early and we’ve had the experience of an outage so now our flights have been cancelled,” Mary Kingi from Sydney said.
“We now have to find some accommodation for the night and find a new flight."
Ms Kingi said they had waited for more than three hours before being told their flight was cancelled.
“We now have to look for some accommodation, and we are tossing up between getting some new flights or getting a car and driving home to Sydney and make it a road trip,” she said.
“No accommodation was offered and they are not organising any flights.
“We’ve got to get home, we’ve got families, we’ve got work.”
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