Jetstar passengers stuck for more than 24 hours in Guangzhou

SINGAPORE: 149 passengers of budget carrier, Jetstar Asia, had their travel plans disrupted when their flight from China’s Guangzhou to Singapore was delayed three times.

The flight, 3K842, was due to depart at about 1.20am on June 11. But the airline said the flight was delayed due to an operational issue and that a new part had to be flown in to fix the problem.

Passengers were apparently told that the flight would depart later, at 7pm on the same day, but it was again delayed.

They were later given another flight time.

Jetstar said the aircraft is now scheduled to depart on Tuesday at 10pm.

It said it provided all passengers with accommodation and meal vouchers.

It also offered a full refund, a free change of flight date or re—accommodation on the delayed service.

Jetstar said it’ll also issue a formal letter of apology and offer a voucher of S$200 to all affected passengers.

Some frustrated passengers decided to take other flights.

Jetstar said 39 of them will be fully reimbursed for their new airfares.

Passengers Channel NewsAsia contacted said they were not happy with the lack of information on their flight.

One of the affected passengers, Mr Ong Kim Chuan, said he had to take another flight back to Singapore.

"We have no choice but to go to Hong Kong and take another flight (Tiger Airways) back to Singapore, which caused us a lot of inconvenience. Jetstar staff did not show any resourcefulness and did not hold up to their responsibility," said Mr Ong.

Another passenger Mr Andrew Chia said the situation was quite chaotic.

"We got different stories from everyone. At that point of time, it was quite chaotic because many of us did not know exactly how we could get back to Singapore. Some of them even heard that Jetstar did not have any more available flights and that the next available flight is on Thursday at 1.20am. Some of them were quite shaken. I had to make a quick decision, because I’m very late for some appointments back in Singapore."

— CNA/fa