Jetstar bid to ease Air Australia backlog

18 Feb 2012, 9:22 pm   -   Source: AAP

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Jetstar has scheduled a special charter flight from Thailand to Darwin in the aftermath of the financial collapse of Air Australia last week.

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Jetstar has scheduled a special charter flight from Phuket to Darwin on Sunday in the aftermath of the financial collapse of Air Australia.

The special flight, which will fly via Singapore, will bring home 180 of the thousands of passengers stranded around Asia and the Pacific.

According to an announcement on its website, an Airbus A320 will leave Phuket at 1045 local time (1445 AEDT) and fly to Singapore. A second flight will depart Singapore for Darwin at 2200 local time (0100 AEDT).

Onward domestic connections will be on scheduled Jetstar services.

Stranded passengers are paying up to $575 extra to get home.

Officials in Thailand said repatriation efforts were going smoothly.

"The overall story is there are no major concerns. The airlines that are assisting have done a very good job," an official told AAP.

"Things are very orderly. People are turning up at the airport and going up to different airlines that might be able to assist them."

Much of the backlog was expected to be cleared by Wednesday.

The Australian embassy in Bangkok had dispatched additional consular staff to Phuket to assist travellers.

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