Floods cause air travel chaos

Flights to the Gold Coast, Ballina and Brisbane have been delayed or cancelled. Picture: Toby Zerna
Source: News Limited

THOUSANDS of travellers making their way home after the long weekend are facing delays and disruptions at Sydney Airport, as ex-tropical cyclone Oswald forces airlines to cancel flights.

Among them are Jackie Bialockie and her two high-school daughters, from Melbourne, who were delayed for 24-hours on Monday morning after their Jetstar flights from Ballina were cancelled.

“This morning we got on another flight to Coolangatta and then to Sydney,” she told AAP.

“Now we’re on a connecting flight, so it’s been a bit of a roundabout way to get to Melbourne.

Also waiting at Sydney Airport was Romona Stainer from Alice Springs, who was delayed for 24-hours.

“I was supposed to catch the 6.30am (AEDT) Qantas flight from Wagga Wagga to Alice Springs, and now I’ve been asked to stay in Sydney overnight,” she said.

Virgin Australia said it had cancelled twenty flights nationally on Tuesday, 16 of which were flying in and out of Sydney.

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The majority of the flights affected are those to and from Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Canberra and Melbourne.

The Qantas group, including Jetstar, says the number of flights affected will not be known until later today.

Strong cross winds were also causing average delays of 30 minutes on flights in and out of Sydney, a Virgin spokesman said.

Passengers can access a fare waiver on qantas.com if they have tickets issued on or before January 29 for travel to or from Queensland and northern New South Wales ports, a spokeswoman said.

The waiver may be changed and customers are being urged to check the website regularly.

Floods cause air travel chaos