Thousands of Aussies in Bali impacted by Jetstar flight cancellations

  • 06/09/2022

Thousands of Australian travellers in Bali have been impacted by Jetstar abruptly cancelling several flights since the start of September.

The airline is blaming engineering issues and has offered to pay for extra accommodation and meals for customers stuck on the Indonesian island, with some having to stay up to five days longer than intended.

About 4000 Australians were impacted at one point in time, a Jetstar spokesperson told Australian media.

Some holidaymakers have been forced to fork out exorbitant sums to book alternative travel - one group of four friends are said to have paid more than AU$10,000 to book new flights home via Kuala Lumpur.

Another traveller said they're stuck in Bali without prescription medicine they need, while another tweeted at Jetstar saying if their third attempt to get home wasn't successful, they'd likely lose their job.

A Jetstar customer named Pauline told news.com.au she had been trying to fly home to Melbourne for two days after her grandfather died on Friday.

"I'm exhausted. I just want to f**king get home... we need to get home," she said.

As of Monday, just 200 passengers were waiting for an alternative flight, a Jetstar spokesperson told media.

"Unfortunately, our Boeing 787 fleet has been impacted by a number of issues, including a lightning strike, a bird strike, damage from an item on the runway and delays sourcing a specific spare part for one of our aircraft due to global supply chain challenges. The part has to be road freighted across the US," the spokesperson said.

"Our teams are looking at every option to get passengers on their way as soon as possible, including seats on Qantas flights and operating ad-hoc services where possible.

"The majority of impacted passengers have now been re-accommodated on an alternative flight and our teams are working hard to find the remaining impacted passengers an alternative flight.

"A flight credit or refund will also be made available to passengers who no longer wish to travel."