Jetstar passengers swear off airline
Jetstar passengers stranded in Honolulu for two days after their plane broke down have sworn they will never fly with the budget Jetstar airline again.
About 300 Australians were left at Honolulu airport for two days after Jetstar botched attempts to get them home.
Two aircraft flew the tired and frustrated passengers back to Melbourne and Sydney on Sunday, with some travelling for three days to get home.
The trouble for around 100 passengers began on Friday morning when their Jetstar flight was cancelled after an electronics problem prevented the plane leaving Australia to pick them up in Honolulu.
The passengers were moved to a Saturday morning flight but the problems worsened when the Airbus A330 scheduled to take them - and another 200 passengers - was grounded.
Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said the plane was inoperable because of a fault detected in its fuel gauge.
"It's an unusual fault and required a number of tests on the indicator inside the left wing where a large section of fuel is held," Mr Westaway said.
"It required the wing to be drained of fuel."
He said passengers were kept informed of the problems, were looked after at Honolulu airport and given overnight accommodation.
But angry passengers at Melbourne airport had nothing but criticism for the airline's customer service.
Father-of-three Braham Shnider has sworn off the airline after the ordeal.
"I certainly wouldn't fly with them again," he told the Seven Network.
"I would say there would not be a single soul on the aeroplane that would fly with them again."
Other passengers, who did not gave their names, echoed his sentiments.
"I'm very tired, and Jetstar is very terrible at customer service," one woman said.
"Everybody had something different to say, nobody knew what was going on."
"I will never fly Jetstar again, ever," another woman said.
Mr Westaway denied passengers had been left in the dark.
"The airline rejects accusations that we haven't sought to get the problem rectified as quickly as possible," he said.
"We used other airlines to move customers and people have got to understand that there are not myriads of services between Honolulu and Australia each and every day.
"We think we have done a pretty good job in difficult circumstances," he said.
"We think people will continue to fly with us."
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