11 Nov 2012

Flights delayed by Australian check-in system failure

10:20 am on 11 November 2012

Flights at Australian airports are expected to return to normal after a three-hour failure of the check-in system used by Jetstar, Virgin and Tiger Airways was fixed.

Travellers were delayed at airports across the country when the Navitaire check-in system failed on Saturday morning.

Airlines including Jetstar, Virgin, Tiger and Rex had to check in passengers manually, causing several flights to be delayed.

Tiger Airways spokeswoman Vanessa Regan said the Navitaire system came back online just before 12pm on Saturday, AAP reports.

Virgin Australia spokeswoman Melissa Thomson said check-in processes had returned to normal and the airline would work to minimise delays.

A Navitaire system crash in 2010 caused chaos for Virgin Blue passengers nationwide, with two days of flight cancellations and delays, forcing some to put themselves up in hotels.

The airline blamed Navitaire for the chaos and said it was considering legal action, but reached a confidential settlement in 2011.

Ms Thomson said Virgin was migrating to a new IT system next year and would no longer be using Navitaire.