Vic: Ansett passengers disruped after airline grounds six planes

AAP General News (Australia)
12-23-2000
Vic: Ansett passengers disruped after airline grounds six planes

The Ansett airline says it is rejigging its entire flight schedule to help thousands
of passengers affected by the grounding of six of its aircraft.

The decision to remove the six Boeing 767-200 planes from service was made early this morning.

Ansett spokesman GEOFF LYNCH says the grounding is in response to an engineering directive.

He says the problem affects several components of the aircraft and is unlikely to be fixed today.

The grounding has affected domestic flights right across Australia and also forced
the cancellation of one flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong and another from Sydney to
Bali.

Ansett is advising all its passengers to proceed to the airport as normal unless the
company contacts them directly with other advice.







Mr LYNCH says thousands of passengers will probably be delayed, because Christmas flights
are heavily booked.

He says extra aircraft are being chartered and other airlines are being contacted for
spare seats.

Ansett is also seeking permission for domestic passengers to use spare seats on international
flights stopping at more than one airport in Australia.

It says fares will be refunded to passengers whose flights are unable to leave on time.

AAP RTV wjf

KEYWORD: ANSETT (MELBOURNE)

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