7 News Australia reports that “Jetstar cancellations left travelers trapped in the terminal with little options but to sleep on the floor and feed themselves from vending machines.”
22 passengers had been trying to get home since last Sunday. However, all Jetstar flights scheduled to depart Japan’s Narita Airport for Australia were cancelled. The exhausted passengers finally got on a flight on Tuesday.
A representative with Jetstar explained, “unfortunately we’ve had some challenges with our 787 aircraft. Bird strike, lightning strike and we’ve had debris on the runway. We had a disruption in Narita. A very small number of passengers were delayed. We re-accommodated them onto alternative services, but unfortunately, not all of them could make those services.”
Why couldn’t the passengers leave the airport to get what they needed? Japan has very strict COVID protocols which prevented them from leaving the airport for any reason.
One passenger living with diabetes had to eat nothing but water and crackers.
“I’m meant to eat substantial food for breakfast, lunch, dinner,” said Teejay Hoch. “Which really, since New York on Saturday morning, I haven’t really had.”
In addition to all of that, travelers complained about the stifling humidity of the airport. This impacted not only Hoch, but a mother with a baby who ran out of baby food and a teacher from Victoria.
The only time the carrier communicated with passengers was a text saying the flight was “indefinitely” cancelled. There was also an email which cited “mechanical issues.”
It’s been a terrible month where flight cancellations and delays are concerned. Numerous flights to and from Indonesia, Japan and Thailand experienced these, and passengers had little if any support.