A Queensland man and his wife’s dreams to see Taylor Swift have been crushed after their flight to Sydney was cancelled, as airlines scramble to fly others impacted by cancellations across the country to the Harbour City in time to see the megastar singer.
Andrew Jackson and his wife have bonded over Swift since meeting 12 years ago.
They woke up at 2am on Friday to drive from their home in Clermont to Mackay Airport to fly to Sydney, only to find messages on their phones that the Virgin Australia flight was cancelled.
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Jackson said he immediately booked another morning flight to Sydney. The only available option to get them there was flying to Brisbane, then to Sydney.
The couple made the three-hour drive to the airport only to learn the flight to Brisbane was delayed by two hours, meaning they would miss the connection to Sydney.
Unable to find an alternative route to Sydney, the couple’s losses from the ticket’s to Swift’s Friday show, accommodation and flying in a relative to babysit their children, amounted to about $4000 “with nothing to show for it”.
“It’s not acceptable,” Jackson said.
“It feels like a broken dream. Taylor Swift’s been really important in our lives”.
Virgin has declined to provide a public response to concerns about flight cancellations. Jackson said the airline told him the reason for the flight cancellation was for “crew rest”.
Other airlines say they have been forced to cancel and delay flights into Sydney due to bad weather, with showers and predicted storms in the city reducing the number of flights into the airport.
Qantas and Jetstar have put on additional flights in response to cancellations on Friday, with the former saying it will take passengers from Melbourne to Sydney via an Airbus A380 “as close to schedule as possible”.
“Due to severe storms forecast to impact the Sydney region late this afternoon, Airservices Australia has limited the number of arrivals and departures in Sydney for all airlines resulting in a number of cancellations and delays,” Qantas said.
“The A380 will carry 485 customers, the equivalent of almost three Boeing 737 flights which normally operate this route.
Jetstar said its Airbus A321 will transport people on Saturday morning.
“We’re doing everything we can to get affected customers on their way as soon as possible,” the airline said.
“We’ve added two flights to Sydney tomorrow morning from Melbourne and Brisbane which will be operated using our Airbus A321 aircraft.
“Customers have also been offered alternative flight options via other ports, or a free move to an earlier scheduled flight.”
