SYDNEY: A widespread system outage at Jetstar Airways turned Thursday morning, March 19, 2025, into a nightmare for passengers across Australia, with check-in and bag-drop services crashing and triggering chaos at airports nationwide. The Qantas-owned budget airline’s technical meltdown forced staff to resort to manual processing, leaving travelers in sprawling queues and scrambling to board flights.
The disruption began early Thursday, knocking out Jetstar’s automated systems and hitting Melbourne Airport particularly hard, where long lines clogged terminals. Similar scenes unfolded at Sydney, Brisbane, and other key hubs, with frustrated passengers venting online. “Stuck for hours—Jetstar’s a disaster today,” one tweeted. Staff painstakingly entered details by hand, slowing operations to a crawl as luggage piled up.
A Jetstar spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia that “check-in and bag-drop facilities are operating normally again” by late morning, crediting staff for manually managing the crisis. “We thank customers for their understanding and patience,” she added. While the airline dodged mass cancellations, delays rippled through schedules, testing travelers’ tempers.
The outage caps a rough month for Jetstar. Just weeks ago, a measles scare emerged after an infected passenger flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney on flight JQ62, arriving at 10:40 p.m. on March 9. Health officials warned anyone in Sydney Airport’s baggage area from 11 a.m. the next day to watch for symptoms, piling scrutiny on the carrier’s operations.
Jetstar hasn’t detailed the outage’s cause, but its resolution brought relief—albeit late—for thousands. As Australia gears up for holiday travel, the incident exposes the airline’s tech vulnerabilities, leaving passengers wary and hoping for smoother skies ahead.
