Fuel issues cause 12-hour delays and cancellations at Perth Airport

A refuelling issue at Perth Airport which grounded domestic and international flights on Saturday morning has been resolved, the airport says. Around 70 domestic and international flights were affected, with planes unable to land or depart at the airport.

Passengers were stranded at airports nationwide and at some international destinations, including Doha waiting to get to Perth. Perth Airport said a problem with load pressure in the fuel lines had caused the issue.
Mr Waters apologised to impacted travellers and said the airport would be working with airlines to resume normal operations as soon as possible. "The effects will be felt throughout today but we'd like to think that within a short period of time after that we'll get back to normal flights," he said.

"I'd like to think by Sunday, we'll have it dealt with but given we're talking about long haul flights and the extent of the backlog, it might take some time."

It's understood some flights had been delayed since Friday night, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. The airport called in external experts, including engineers and technicians, to identify and repair the problem.

"As of just recently, I can inform you that we are back to normal refuelling and obviously very keen to see a return to normal operation," Mr Waters said.

"This has had a significant impact on flights overnight.

"From Perth airport's perspective we're very apologetic and sympathetic to impacted travellers.

"We're going to work very hard with our airlines here to ensure we get things back to normal as quickly as possible."

Mr Waters said the problem appeared to be the result of "air sucked into the distribution system". About 70 of the airport’s scheduled domestic and international flights had been cancelled.

It’s understood that the fuelling issue has now been fixed.