The "F*** you" airline again

Jetstar has cancelled all of today's Bali flights due to a volcanic ash cloud, as stranded passengers express anger over a lack of communication.

The airline has rejected accusations it is failing to effectively communicate with stranded Australians in Bali, after passengers claimed they had received little information from the airline.

"We've checked with the airline but they're hopeless," said passenger Simon Hammond, an advertising executive who is reaching the end of a two-week family holiday in Bali. "They've got absolutely no information available [and] don't answer their phones." "There is no information, there is no answer to any telephone calls, there is no SMS when they promise to do so," he said. "It's unbelieveable."

Mr Hammond's sentiments were echoed by other Jetstar passengers who contacted this website. "We have had no communication from Jetstar," said Luanne Hopkinson. "The accommodation they provided was very bad, many people including myself left. [We're] still waiting communication from Jetstar as to what flight we will be placed on," she said.

The travel plans of thousands of Australians have been thrown into chaos after an Indonesian volcano, the Tengger Caldera, erupted, belching a large ash plume into busy airspace yesterday.

About 2000 Jetstar passengers are affected today, about 700 of them are marooned in Bali from flights grounded last night.

Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway rejected accusations the airline was not doing its utmost to keep passengers informed and was putting contingencies in place. "We are communicating to customers, I take the point people might be frustrated. "We are doing everything we can: we are providing regular updates publicly, we are providing updates on the website and call centre.

"I appreciate that people could be frustrated but we are providing updates as best we can, and as reguarly as we can, and as accurately as we can," he said. "It's bit of a moving issue today - I reject the accusation that our organisation isn't being absolutely pro-active in keeping people informed and, importantly, pro-active in seeking to get people back to Australia. "We appreciate this issue. We are doing our absolute utmost," he said.

Mr Hammond, a brand mangement expert, advises leading companies on how to reach and engage with their customers. "Anyone I talk to about the brand of Jetstar say exactly the same thing: they are the worst service airline when it comes to giving you access to details and reassurance. "It's just re-emphasises that this brand only cares about costs, it doesn't care about passengers.

Mr Westaway said the uncertainty surrounding the movement of the ash cloud was hampering decisions, and in the meantime was assisting passengers. "We are meeting people's accommodation requirements, we will get them on flights to return them home, we are in the process of doing that. "At the moment we can't, as we are yet to make the call as to whether we can get aircraft there from the east coast of Australia.

"It's not a simple solution to say: 'I need information now, where is it?' We are not yet in a position to provide firm information about when people can return home.

"We've really got to get confidence that this volcanic ash plume has moved onwards and won't return and we're looking at a plan now to put in additional services to recover customers. It's a wait and see game for the next 12 to 24 hours. "Once we get comfort that the ash cloud moves well beyond the vacinity of the airport, we will be looking at additional services to bring people back.

Mr Westaway said Jetstar was formulating a recovery plan. "We are putting in place a plan over the next 24 hours to be able to do that. It's just very difficult at the moment to articulate that because we need to get some confidence the airspace is going to be able to be safe to operate in, in the evening when the majority of our services occur," Mr Westaway said. The airline's policy of fee waivers, rebookings and refunds applies, he said.

Flights were initially expected to restart this afternoon, staring with Jetstar's JQ116 10.05am (local time) Perth to Denpasar flight, but this has since been cancelled. Jetstar's website still listed the flight as operating on its volcano information page at 12.39pm and a Jetstar call centre staff member said the flight had departed.

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