Qantas passengers left stranded in Dubai for 44 hours
Flight QF2 from London to Sydney via Dubai is one of Qantas’ busiest routes, but for the past two days, it’s been at a standstill. The flight was delayed early Monday morning due to a faulty air conditioner onboard the A380 – an issue which wasn’t resolved for almost two days, leaving frustrated passengers stranded inside Dubai International Airport.
@Qantas QF2 update Dubai
Come on Qantas, get your act together and advise passengers what is happening to this flght please— Jean Young (@youngjean21) July 24, 2017
@Qantas Trying to establish info on QF2 Dubai. 16 year old daughter on booking but customer care can't advise. Please help
— gerrybrazil (@gerrybrazil) July 24, 2017
@Qantas well thats 46 hours at Dubai airport now, our 5 year old has been up since 7am in a terminal thanks to your incompetence. #QF2
— The Owl Sanctuary (@OwlSanctuaryNR1) July 25, 2017
Affected passengers were put up in hotels overnight while engineers rushed to repair the aircraft, only to find upon returning to the airport the next morning that the issue had not yet been resolved.
According to a Qantas spokesperson, the airline commissioned another A380 from partner airline Emirates to replace the faulty plane and fly the furious passengers home – 44 hours after the initial scheduled departure time.
“We appreciate this has been an extremely frustrating time for passengers and apologise sincerely,” Qantas said. “Delays like this are very unusual, and very regrettable, but we will always put safety before schedule.”
The flight finally touched down in Sydney at 8pm local time.