Flight Delays

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Saturday, June 1. Our flight from Perth to Brisbane is delayed, it's chaos at the airport. See WAToday Article

The day starts with some confusion. My calendar says we're flying out in the morning but we have mail confirmation for a different time? What the heck is going on, is it just time zone confusions (EST vs Australia time)? We are flying business class on Virgin Australia so we are not expecting delays. If there are delays, they ought to be handled quickly.

Apparently there was some problem with the fueling system at the airport. Planes couldn't get fueled which meant those on the ground couldn't leave and likewise for those arriving. Perth is an international airport, the largest within the state, and an important hub. This has a ripple effect throughout the system. We hear about an international flight landing in smaller regional airports like Geraldton (population 40K, over 4 hours to the north) and Kalgoorlie (population 40K, over 6 hours to the east) with passengers being bussed into Perth. Further, that these international flight have refueled at the these regional airports and headed back leaving little fuel for others. It's a real muck up and surely heads will roll. How can this happen?

We understand that techs are brought in to solve the problem (I recall it being an airlock in the undergound pipes that caused pressure to drop) and we are at the airport by 1pm and camped out in the Virgin Lounge where there's lots of food, snacks, beer and wine to while away the afternoon. The flight we've been moved to does leave on time but we won't get into Brisbane until around midnight.

We were able to get out of Perth on the same day. Many of our friends from the conference will have had an unplanned extra day because of the interruption at the airport.

When we had thing figured out I called the car rental to find out if they would be open that late. Unfortunately not, but fortunately we have not prepaid so they just move our reservation to the next day. We arrive around midnight and take an Uber to our apartment in the New Farm suburb of Brisbane a short half hour away. We'll come back tomorrow and pick up our car.

Flight delays? That's just part of travel.