Thousands of commuters, including schoolies, are facing lengthy travel disruptions after 90 Jetstar flights were grounded due to a plane software issue.
Impacted customers took to social media to document the long queues at airports in Melbourne and Sydney as authorities race to fix the issue.
The issue has impacted 90 Jetstar flights in Australia, with 34 of 85 of the company’s A320/1 aircraft identified to have the anomaly.
Engineering teams are being deployed to airports primarily on the east coast to reverse a software upgrade on affected planes and carry out flight control checks before the planes are able to dispatch, Jetstar’s Head of Flying Operations Tyrone Simes said.
Mr Simes said the airline was trying to quickly rectify the situation, which takes between to to three hours for each aircraft, and most repairs would be completed on Saturday.
“We’re hoping to get it all done today and expecting the potential for some minor disruption tomorrow,” he told reporters at Melbourne Airport on Saturday.
European plane manufacturer Airbus had ordered immediate precautionary action from operators of a significant number of A320 planes in service across the globe after discovering “intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls”.
The issue was discovered after a US JetBlue flight made an emergency landing after a flight control problem saw the plane make a sudden uncommanded drop in altitude on October 30.
Jetstar said it will contact affected customers contact to advise of options including a refund and urged them to check their flight status before travelling to the airport.
Melbourne Airport chief of Aviation Jim Parashos said more than 6000 Airbus aircraft globally were impacted and the airport was working with Jetstar to help passengers get on their way.
“Being a weekend, schoolies, I’ve spoken to a lot of travellers that are heading up to Byron and Gold Coast. We appreciate their frustration, but they’ve been very understanding,” he told reporters.
Sydney Airport said it was supporting Jetstar to resolve the issue, but noted all other airlines at the airport are operating as normal and are unaffected.
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