Tropical Cyclone Ita - Cancelled Flights and Extra Services at Central Queensland Airports

Well, I suppose I was lucky to escape Queensland on Saturday 12 April for a few days while the North and Central Queensland coasts were battered by Tropical Cylone Ita.  Ita initially crossed the coast North of Cairns as a Category 4 system - very severe - and turned South and headed back out to sea, tracking essentially parallel to the Central Queensland coast, bring strong winds and heavy rain to the Whitsundays, Mackay, Rockhampton and Gladstone areas.

NOAA satellite image showing Tropical Cyclone Ita at category five strength

Flights into some Central Queensland airports were affected where on Sunday 13 April, all commercial flights into Proserpine / Whitsunday Coast Airport and Hamilton Island Airport were cancelled, while some cancellations also occurred at Mackay and Rockhampton Airports.

With the cancelled flights came additional services to the Whitsundays by both Virgin Australia and Jetstar Airways to clear the backlog.  Here is a quick summary...

On Monday 14 April...
Virgin B737-800 VH-YFK flew BNE-PPP-BNE as VOZ9513/9514.
Virgin B737-700 VH-VBY operated BNE-HTI-BNE as VOZ9517/9518.
Virgin B737-800 VH-VUG operated BNE-MKY-BNE as VOZ9519/9520.

On Tuesday 15 April...
Jetstar A320 VH-VQG flew BNE-PPP-BNE as JST7832/5.

By Tuesday afternoon, operations looked to be back to normal.  These details are by no-means exhaustive.