Strong winds blow up airline schedules after airports reduced to single runway operations

Cyclonic-strength winds across the southern states have reduced Australia’s two biggest airports to single runway operations.

The flight path of Vietjet flight VJ81 from Ho Chi Minh City, which tried twice to land at Melbourne Airport in strong winds before diverting to Canberra. Picture: Flightradar24

Cyclonic-strength winds are playing havoc with airline schedules in Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania, causing more than 90 cancellations, as well as delays and diversions.

Two international flights due into Melbourne on Sunday night opted to divert to Canberra and Brisbane instead, eventually reaching their destination more than four hours behind schedule.

A Vietjet flight from Ho Chi Minh City diverted to Canberra after two failed attempts to land in Melbourne. The A330 was then refuelled before returning to Tullamarine.

Passengers eventually touched down about 3am, instead of 11pm, only to learn workers with ground handling company Swissport had deemed it unsafe to take their bags off the aircraft.

Some then waited several more hours to collect their bags, while others took up Vietjet’s offer to courier their luggage to them.

The return flight to Vietnam was delayed from midday to 3pm on Monday.

A Cebu Pacific flight from Manila also made the decision to give Melbourne a miss in the early hours of the morning, and landed in Brisbane about 1.20am.

Cebu Pacific was one of the airlines affected by wild weather in Melbourne. Picture: Cebu Pacific Air

The service took off again at 3.25am, and arrived in Melbourne just before 5.30am.

A Melbourne Airport spokesman confirmed the airport had been on single runway operations for most of Monday, due to the strong winds.

The Bureau of Meteorology showed gusts of more than 90km/h had been recorded at the airport and at nearby Avalon.

Launceston Airport was being buffeted by winds of 100km/h, due to a “vigorous west to north-westerly airstream” over the country’s south east.

Winds ranging from 89km/h to 117km/h are typically associated with category two cyclones.

It’s understood a Virgin Australia flight to Launceston turned around before landing on Monday, and returned to Melbourne because of the weather.

Sydney Airport was also being blasted by high winds, and a spokeswoman said Airservices had enacted single runway operations.

“We encourage passengers to check with their airline regarding the status of their flight,” said the spokeswoman.

So far, 90 domestic flights had been cancelled at Sydney Airport.

Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia confirmed the wild weather was causing widespread disruption.

At least 25 Virgin Australia flights had been cancelled along with three Jetstar flights, plus 31 Qantas mainline flights and 26 QantasLink services.

Most passengers were being put on alternate flights within the next 24 hours.

More to come …

Originally published as Strong winds blow up airline schedules after airports reduced to single runway operations