Gold Coast-Hobart passengers stranded after Tigerair flight cancelled

Passengers bound for Hobart were left stranded this morning after a sick crew member forced the cancellation of their flight.

TIGERAIR passengers bound for Hobart were left stranded on the Gold Coast this morning after a sick crew member forced the cancellation of their flight.

One disgruntled passenger said she was only offered a refund because the next Tigerair flight on the same route wasn’t until Tuesday.

She said she had to fork out $350 for a Qantas flight via Melbourne to get home, along with 35 others.

She spoke to one family of five who were planning to stay at Gold Coast airport until Tuesday because they couldn’t afford a ticket on other airlines or accommodation for three extra nights.

She said she was told a “bunch of people” also paid $800 for Jetstar flights back to Hobart.

The passenger said it was a sour end to her week-long holiday.

“I can’t believe they’re allowed to do this and provide no compensation,” she said.

“I’ll only fly Tigerair again if I’ve got proper insurance.”

She landed in Hobart with Qantas at 5.30pm, almost three hours after Tigerair was supposed to touch down.

Another passenger said she had to borrow money from her daughter to afford the trip home with Qantas.

Not all passengers were offered a refund, with the majority of passengers transferred to a Tigerair or Virgin Australia service today on connecting routes.

The flight from Hobart to the Gold Coast earlier this morning was also scrapped.

A Tigerair spokeswoman said both flights were cancelled on Saturday morning because of operational reasons.

“Tigerair is the only airline that flies this route direct and our operations team worked hard to minimise the impact on affected passengers,” she said.

“Affected passengers were offered refunds, travel credits or a free of charge transfer to another Tigerair or Virgin Australia service where flights were available on connecting routes.

“Cancelling flights is never our preference and we sincerely apologise to affected customers for the inconvenience this has caused to their travel plans.”

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