Saturday morning
Saturday morning in Fiji had brought news of further airport closures across Europe and news of the extended closure of UK airports. At this stage the closure was due to end at lunchtime Saturday, so I still assumed my flight from Sydney to London on Sunday would be rescheduled to go ahead.
I took my scheduled early morning Air Pacific to Sydney and arrived at Kingsford Smith airport at lunchtime. Checking the departure boards I find that there is a BA flight due to leave that afternoon and I wonder if I could just bring my departure forward by a day and get home a day early. As this simple Plan B formulated I thought 'What a funny story that would be'! While waiting for the BA desk to open I ask at Virgin if they have any spare seats for sale in the coming week. Plan C as back up, justin case.
A smiling Virgin Glamazon tells me the good news… Virgin has not been so silly as BA to cancel flights from Sydney to London because European air space will re-open while these flights are en route. Virgin flights are leaving Australia. The bad news? Virgin is sold out for three weeks and the first ticket available is in Upper Class and will cost me £4000 one way.
I Digested this news and went in search of a Plan D. I got a similar answer at QANTAS. They are still expecting to fly to London today and may have seats available if I want to wait around for check in to open in an hour.
As the time approaches when BA check in is due to open a big queue of people has formed to check in for the scheduled flight. No talk here of cancellation and I begin to think my cancellation for the flight tomorrow is an administrative error. But there are no BA staff at the desk and their ticket desk is closed. As I am wandering around seeing if I can get out with any carrier I see the electronic display trip from green to red. From check in bay numbers to a big solid word. The BA flight is cancelled. Then the QANTAS flight is cancelled. Then the Virgin flight is cancelled.
Imagine the scene. As the dominoes fall down the screen a literal roar is starting to rise from different check in points as 1500 people realise they aren’t going anywhere and start demanding answers. As I look around I see throngs of people around the free internet access points.
I realise that whatever solutions are to be found will not be found at Kingsford Smith Airport. I go to my hostel on Hyde Park, check in, double check that I can extend my stay a bit longer and invest A$20 in an internet access card.
Here is a picture of Sydney with a looming apocalyptic cloud to illustrate my mood.
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