BY AUDREY MCAVOY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ADVERTISING HONOLULU — More than 200 passengers of an Air Australia flight found out at the airport gate Thursday that they would need to find another way out of Honolulu. The Brisbane-based airline, formerly
BY AUDREY MCAVOY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONOLULU — More than 200 passengers of an Air Australia flight found out at the airport gate Thursday that they would need to find another way out of Honolulu.
The Brisbane-based airline, formerly known as Strategic Airlines, said all flights had been canceled and the airline would not be accepting new bookings because it could no longer pay its bills.
Daryl Maudsley, his wife and their three children had checked their bags and were waiting at the gate for their 11:40 a.m. flight to Brisbane when they heard an announcement that their plane wouldn’t take off. The family couldn’t find seats on another flight to Australia, so they used a phone book to find a hotel in Waikiki.
Maudsley, from Coolum Beach, Queensland, said the airport should have a contingency plan to offer passengers information on hotels and other airlines.
“It probably isn’t the first time it has gone bankrupt, and it probably won’t be the last,” he said. The airline handed out paper with information, but they only had about six sheets for the 225 people due to board, he said.
Air Australia said it was placed into voluntary administration, which is similar to bankruptcy protection in the U.S. It can buy a company time to get out of its financial problems.
The 153 passengers who arrived Thursday on Air Australia’s flight from Melbourne will have to find another way home. Hawaiian Airlines was offering affected passengers $300 one-way fares to Sydney.
About 500 to 600 passengers in Hawaii are expected to be affected by the Air Australia suspension over the next three days, the Hawaii Tourism Authority said.
Other Air Australia flights were scheduled to depart Honolulu on Friday and Saturday. The airline’s sole Airbus 330 that services Hawaii remained at Honolulu International Airport Thursday, said state Department of Transportation spokesman Daniel Meisenzahl.
Priya Sinh had to postpone her 18th birthday party Saturday at her home in Gold Coast because of the cancellation. She used her iPad to log onto Facebook to tell her 70 guests not to come because she wouldn’t be back from Hawaii.
“We tried to laugh about it, but it wasn’t funny,” she said while her family called hotels looking for a room. Her mother managed to reserve the last four seats on a Jetstar flight to Sydney leaving Saturday.
The airline began offering direct routes to Honolulu from Brisbane and Melbourne in December, an expansion the Hawaii Tourism Authority touted as a “significant opportunity for Hawaii to grow its presence in Australia” that would provide an estimated $92.9 million in visitor spending.
The four-times-a-week flights have been averaging 150 to 210 passengers, Meisenzahl said.
Around 4,000 passengers were overseas with Air Australia round-trip tickets, voluntary administrator Mark Korda said. Some of those affected were stranded in Honolulu and Phuket, Thailand.
Passengers who bought tickets with credit cards or had travel insurance may be given a refund, the airline said.
The airline’s fleet consists of five Airbus A330-200 and A320-200 aircraft that regularly fly to Bali, Phuket, Honolulu and cities within Australia.
