Jetstar comes to rescue of stranded Aussie tourists

Budget airline Air Australia has been placed into administration, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. Photo / Thinkstock

Hundreds of Australian tourists have had to pay an extra NZ$600 to fly home from Thailand after being stranded by the collapse of Air Australia.

Passengers, who had already processed through immigration, were forced to leave the airport in the early hours of Friday morning after flight VC 241 was cancelled.

On Friday 300 passengers hoping to get on a flight arrived at the airport.

Amy Simpson, 24, a psychiatric nurse from Werribee, near Melbourne, and Chloe Cox-Haines, 23, a student from the Gold Coast, managed to get onto a flight to Singapore.

"It was absolute chaos last night," Simpson told the Phuketwan newswire.

"The (Air Australia) plane was due out at 7.30pm. We we were told about 6.30pm it would be delayed until 8pm due to minor difficulties.

"Every hour or so there were further delays. Eventually, close to midnight, we were told we would not be flying. Everyone then had to be reprocessed back through immigration."

The women found accommodation but said "lots of others are still struggling".

"There was nobody from Air Australia at the airport last night, and the Thais didn't know what to tell us. All we were given was a free bottle of soft drink," she said.

Other stranded passengers spoke of upset families and concerns their travel insurance would not cover the additional cost to fly back to Australia.

Larry Cunningham, Australian honorary consul for Phuket, said the anger among the passengers had dissipated on Friday.

"The mood is good. They're behaving very well. Helping people, older people."

Cunningham said Thai airport officials and tourism officers, from the boss down, had been supportive.

Australian diplomatic officials had flown to Phuket to assist the stranded passengers and further flights would be made available in coming days.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said he was deeply concerned about the impact the collapse of Air Australia would have on the Australian public.

Mr Rudd called on officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs "to provide every form of consular assistance possible".

He said Qantas had indicated it was doing "everything possible to make it feasible for people to get back to Australia".