Boeing 747-400 ©Aaron Escobar
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Tourists and locals alike were stranded in paradise when Virgin Australia was forced to cancel all flights from mainland Australian to the Cocos Islands. The airline cancelled flights due to the lack of aviation fuel in the Australian Indian Ocean territory.
Aviation fuel supplier Air BP has not been unable to unload supplies since the freighter MV Tycoon broke its moorings and blocked the berth on Christmas Island.
Normally, the airline flies an Embraer 190 from Perth to the Cocos Islands via Christmas Island, where it needs to take on extra fuel. Due to the problems on Christmas Island, Virgin Australia had to use two special Boeing 737 planes, which have the capacity to fly without refueling, to fly passengers who were stranded over the weekend back to Perth.
Virgin apologized to passengers in a letter,
“We appreciate the remoteness of Cocos Islands in relation to the Australian mainland and are deeply sympathetic with how much the local community relies on these services, not only for passenger travel but also for the carriage of freight.”
Virgin said it was continuing to work with The Department of Regional Australia and their fuel supplier to resume services to Cocos Islands as soon as possible.
Read more at news.com.au.