Rain causes flight delays, cancellations at Melbourne Airport

PASSENGERS will be stranded at Melbourne Airport overnight with wet weather forcing several flight delays and some cancellations.

Melbourne air passengers stranded

PASSENGERS will be stranded at Melbourne Airport overnight with wet weather forcing several flight delays and some cancellations.

Airport spokeswoman Carly Dixon said domestic and international flights across several carriers had been "weather affected" since Friday.

The delays had caused a backlog of flights, with some departures having to be held over until tomorrow.

Ms Dixon said this could particularly hold true for a number of flights travelling to Sydney, where an 11pm to 6am curfew is in place.

Passengers have taken to social media to air their frustrations, with one describing the situation at Melbourne Airport as "chaos".

"Absolute chaos at #melbourneairport ... Damn you storms!! Most flights delayed. Plenty cancelled," Jo Macarthur tweeted.

"First holiday in years. 2.5hr delay. Still sitting at Melbourne airport," Melbourne man Darren Silverman posted.

Soohan Sohn wrote that his flight had been held up for 4.5 hours, while Stephen said people were stuck in planes on the tarmac.

David Newton said Virgin appeared to have been worst affected by delays.

"3 hr delay in Melb. @VirginAustralia priority check-in chaotic. Lounge overflowing. @QantasAirways side, peaceful," he tweeted.

Virgin spokesman Nathan Scholz said the bad weather had forced all airlines to reduce the number of planes taking off and landing at Melbourne.

He said Virgin had cancelled a number of domestic flights today, but did not believe any international departures had been abandoned.

Mr Scholz said the airline would put up passengers who had had their trip disrupted mid-journey in accommodation near the airport tonight.

"There have been delays across all carriers for the past two days," Mr Scholz said.

"We're working as hard as we can to put affected passengers on flights."

Qantas, Jetstar and Tiger Air have also been forced to abandon flights today.

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