Thousands of Virgin Blue passengers faced delays at airports around the country after the airline’s reservations and baggage system crashed this afternoon.
Angry passengers fired heated messages through social networking site Twitter about a failure of the check-in and boarding systems and the lack of communication from the airline about the problem.
Messages started rolling in from Virgin Blue passengers in Sydney Airport at 4.43pm, at Hobart airport at 4.46pm, at Canberra at 5.01pm, at Melbourne airport at 5.07pm and at Brisbane at 5.21pm.
The airline’s bookings functions on its website went down, too, as it feeds into the same reservations system.
The outage left passengers waiting as boarding passes and baggage had to be processed manually.
"Virgin Blue checking system down, please not 24hrs at the airport ... They’ve had plenty of practice at their manual system lately," was typical of passengers' comments.
It’s the latest embarrassing breakdown of the "Navitaire" reservations system since an 11-day outage last year, despite assurances to the airline that the problems had been fixed.
In last year's outage, Virgin Blue estimated it cost the airline $15 million to $20 million in lost earnings, and the company was finalising its negotiations with Navitaire for financial compensation.
This evening, 10 Virgin Blue flights due to depart from Melbourne were listed as "delayed", some by an hour or more.
Other peak-hour flights managed to take off up to an hour late.
Some flights were two hours late leaving Sydney late this afternoon.
One reader reported seeing planes banked up at Sydney Airport around 6pm.
"There were approximately 8-10 Virgin planes lined up on the end of the runway, with more coming in to join them," the reader said.
"I thought it must have been a publicity shot! I suspect that they were waiting to get to a boarding gate".
In Queensland, Rohan Thomas, said "all Virgin flights are delayed two hours out of the Gold Coast. No check in system but the staff are coping OK with the confusion".
Another reader, who is collecting relatives from Melbourne Airport, also spoke of delays.
"Apparently Melbourne-bound passengers departing Hobart have had to collect any luggage that had been checked in, re-line up and re-check in so it can be done again manually," John Asome said.
"The passengers I am collecting are my two and three-year-old nieces and their mother.
"I suspect all three might be a little feral once they arrive."
A Virgin Blue spokeswoman said the the system was now back up and running as normal, after initially switching over to a back-up.
"There are going to be delays tonight," she said.
"The flight schedules will continue as normal tonight with minimal delays — up to 60 minutes a flight.
"We’re currently investigating the cause of the issue with our IT provider."
However, a passenger rejected the airline's claim of minimal delays: "There is no way things are normal. My flight is showing 1 hour 45 mins late already, with another hour and a half before its new depart time," Dean Frye said.
Source http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/new-meltdown-at-virgin-checkin-20110215-1auxw.html
Angry passengers fired heated messages through social networking site Twitter about a failure of the check-in and boarding systems and the lack of communication from the airline about the problem.
Messages started rolling in from Virgin Blue passengers in Sydney Airport at 4.43pm, at Hobart airport at 4.46pm, at Canberra at 5.01pm, at Melbourne airport at 5.07pm and at Brisbane at 5.21pm.
The airline’s bookings functions on its website went down, too, as it feeds into the same reservations system.
The outage left passengers waiting as boarding passes and baggage had to be processed manually.
"Virgin Blue checking system down, please not 24hrs at the airport ... They’ve had plenty of practice at their manual system lately," was typical of passengers' comments.
It’s the latest embarrassing breakdown of the "Navitaire" reservations system since an 11-day outage last year, despite assurances to the airline that the problems had been fixed.
In last year's outage, Virgin Blue estimated it cost the airline $15 million to $20 million in lost earnings, and the company was finalising its negotiations with Navitaire for financial compensation.
This evening, 10 Virgin Blue flights due to depart from Melbourne were listed as "delayed", some by an hour or more.
Other peak-hour flights managed to take off up to an hour late.
Some flights were two hours late leaving Sydney late this afternoon.
One reader reported seeing planes banked up at Sydney Airport around 6pm.
"There were approximately 8-10 Virgin planes lined up on the end of the runway, with more coming in to join them," the reader said.
"I thought it must have been a publicity shot! I suspect that they were waiting to get to a boarding gate".
In Queensland, Rohan Thomas, said "all Virgin flights are delayed two hours out of the Gold Coast. No check in system but the staff are coping OK with the confusion".
Another reader, who is collecting relatives from Melbourne Airport, also spoke of delays.
"Apparently Melbourne-bound passengers departing Hobart have had to collect any luggage that had been checked in, re-line up and re-check in so it can be done again manually," John Asome said.
"The passengers I am collecting are my two and three-year-old nieces and their mother.
"I suspect all three might be a little feral once they arrive."
A Virgin Blue spokeswoman said the the system was now back up and running as normal, after initially switching over to a back-up.
"There are going to be delays tonight," she said.
"The flight schedules will continue as normal tonight with minimal delays — up to 60 minutes a flight.
"We’re currently investigating the cause of the issue with our IT provider."
However, a passenger rejected the airline's claim of minimal delays: "There is no way things are normal. My flight is showing 1 hour 45 mins late already, with another hour and a half before its new depart time," Dean Frye said.
Source http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/new-meltdown-at-virgin-checkin-20110215-1auxw.html
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