Qantas cancels flight to London after passenger with coronavirus on board aircraft

The airline has cancelled a flight to London from Sydney after a recent passenger was diagnosed with coronavirus.

Qantas has cancelled a flight to London overnight after it emerged that a passenger with coronavirus recently travelled on the plane.

The airline cancelled flight QF1 from Sydney on Wednesday evening while extra cleaning was carried out. Passengers were moved to the next available flight, according to a spokesperson for the airline.

“While Qantas Medical has assessed the risk as extremely low, we are doing some additional cleaning of those aircraft as a precaution,” a Qantas spokesperson said.

The infected passenger arrived in the country on February 28 but Qantas was only told (Wednesday) morning after NSW Health put out the advice around people who were on a flight last week.

The spokesperson said the cleaning was an “extra precaution”, done in addition to the regular cleaning which takes place after each flight.

Another Qantas flight from Singapore to Sydney, using an A330 was also identified by NSW Health as transporting a man who tested positive for coronavirus.

The Australian reports cabin crew who had direct contact with the passengers on each flight have been placed into self-isolation.