Travel delays as check-in system fails

Hundreds of frustrated passengers voice their anger with Jetstar at Sydney Airport this morning. Picture: Jonty Bush/Facebook Source: The Daily Telegraph

The chaos at Melbourne Airport this morning with Jetstar and Virgin Australia check-in systems crashing. Source: Herald Sun

AIRLINE check-in systems affected by a computer glitch are back online and the queues of delayed passengers are clearing.

Jetstar, Virgin Australia and Tiger Airways are electronically checking in the backlog of passengers after having to manually process passengers  in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Sydney during the two-hour IT outage. 

Frustrated passengers vented their anger after lengthy airport delays across the country .

Virgin staff handed out water bottled to disgruntled customers, many of whom had no idea when their flights would be called.

Jetstar, Virgin Australia and Tiger Airways this afternoon announced that the check-in system is now back in operation, although delays will continue as they work through the backlog.

"The system is back up and running now, but we are still expecting delays," Melissa Thomson of Virgin Australia said this afternoon.

"It's a domino effect as the same plane makes flights out of multiple airports throughout the day. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth are taking the brunt."

A Jetstar spokesman said the outage caused delays across the airline's network and staff were working to process delayed passengers as quickly as possible.

"We know that this has inconvenienced our customers and we thank them for their patience as we process passengers,'' he said.

Tiger Airways spokeswoman Vanessa Regan said the Navitaire system came back online just before midday. She said the outage had caused a half an hour delay for several Tiger flights.

"We did have a couple of minimal delays but we expect to smooth those over now,'' Ms Regan said.

At Sydney Airport the delays exceeded two hours, with improvised boarding passes meaning there were no set seats.  "Sit where you like," passengers were told.

At Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne, most Jetstar and Virgin Australia flights had been delayed by up to four hours, with problems continuing when they were boarding, with seats having to be reallocated.

Jason English flew in to Sydney with wife Jenny and six-month old son Archie for a Cycling Australia function on Friday night, where he was named Australian Mountain Biker of the Year.

The young family turned up to Sydney Airport over three hours early for their 12.15pm flight back to Port Macquarie, so they could enjoy the Virgin Lounge for the first time.

Jason, speaking from amidst the "mob-like scenes" said they were shocked when they arrived.

"There's people everywhere," he said. "It was a bit of a rude surprise. If we had of known we would have stayed at our hotel in Circular Quay."

English said the confusion and lack of communication from Virgin staff was making passengers "freak out" across the terminal.

"We were lining up for over two hours in what we thought was a queue for check-in," he said. "Then they told us there were no queues and they were doing the planes one by one.

"Archie is not very happy, he definitely needs a sleep.

"We were going to get him some sleep in the lounge, but that's proved impossible."

English said Virgin had provided disgruntled passengers with improvised hand-written boarding passes without frequent flyer numbers written on them. Virgin is yet to confirm if passengers will be receiving frequent flyer points as a result of this morning's computer crash.

"It was going to be the highlight of our weekend," English said. "But it certainly isn't."

NBL team Adelaide 36ers are among the thousand-plus people waiting to check-in for their Virgin flights at Tullamarine's departure terminal.

Basketballer Adam Gibson said having their 10am flight home delayed was another blow to the team after losing to the Melbourne Tigers last night.

"It is definitely making (the loss) worse," Gibson, 26, said.

He said the team was planning on preparing for tomorrow's game against Perth but now had no idea what time they would arrive in Adelaide.

Delayed flights are being called individually so passengers can be manually boarded.

At 8.15am, a Courier-Mail reporter due to fly from Brisbane to Cairns said Jetstar's check-in system had crashed.

Brisbane Airport Corporation confirmed that Jetstar's check-in system had experienced an error that was delaying flights nation-wide.

A Herald Sun reporter due to board a 10am flight from Melbourne to Sydney said the Virgin Australia area at Tullamarine Airport was chaos, with hundreds of passengers waiting to be manually boarded.

She said Virgin staff told passengers the whole computer check-in system was down and they would manually board passengers, although that process is yet to begin. She added that the last flight to depart was the 9.40am to Maroochydore.

One of the passengers caught in this morning's chaos is 2009 Young Australian of the Year Jonty Bush who is attempting to return to Brisbane airport after a dinner last night with Prince Charles and Camilla in Sydney.

Chaotic scenes at Sydney domestic airport departure lounge as the booking system fails and thousands are left to be manually checked in by staff. Picture: Sam Ruttyn Source: The Sunday Telegraph

Having flown down with Qantas for the event organised by Governor-General Quentin Bryce with Qantas, Bush told The Sunday Telegraph she was kicking herself for not booking return flights with the Flying Kangaroo.

"I don't know why I always fall for this," she said. "I've had maybe two out of six successful flights with Jetstar."

Describing the scene at Sydney Airport, Bush said: "It's horrendous. There' no progression, no movement.

"We've got no idea what's going on, there's literally hundreds of people trying to check in and there's no computer kiosks working.

"It's out of control."

Inspiring ... Anti-violence advocate Jonty Bush with her Young Australian of the Year award in 2009. Picture: Gary Ramage Source: news.com.au

Bush was invited to Friday night's dinner thanks to her pioneering work in setting up the "One Punch Can Kill" campaign after losing family members to violence in her teens.

Melissa Thompson of Virgin Australia said: "We are having an issue, as is Jetstar," Melissa Thompson of Virgin Australia said.

"It is a slow process, but we are booking in passengers manually at the moment."

Virgin Australia said no flights had been cancelled.

The system crash has also affected the Jetstar website, with customers unable to search flights or book online.

Unimpressed passengers are turning to Twitter to vent their frustrations about the delays.

"Well this is fantastic! @VirginAustralia systems are down so looks like I'm stuck in Brisbane airport for who knows how long!," PetieRee tweeted.

efjohnhunter said: "@VirginAustralia check-in line is all the way down to the @JetstarAirways check-in desks. #SydneyAirport."

ssharwood tweeted: "@VirginAustralia experiencing "nationsl (sic) system outage" and all flights grounded in Sydney. Grumpy."

One Jetstar customer, Alex Cassimaty tweeted: "First there was trackwork, [sic] then my bus didn't show up and now Jetstar's check-in system is down. MELBOURNE WHY DON'T YOU WANT ME."

Bruce Ehrlich on the Daily Telegraph's Facebook page tweeted: "At Mackay airport waiting in line with Jet Star. Virgin and Qantas aren't having problems here only Jet Star!"

A Qantas spokeswoman confirmed the airline, which uses a different computer system to subsidiary Jetstar, was unaffected.

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