Qantas charters flights to Cairo, one emergency flight delayed
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Date: February 4, 2011
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Katia Iervasi
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The Australian federal government chartered two Qantas 747s to evacuate Australian citizens from Cairo, where riots and civil strife are endangering locals and tourists alike. The first Qantas flight 6020 arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, late Wednesday night. While the plane could hold up to 412 passengers, only 191 Australians were able to make the flight amid the chaos. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said that Australians are finding it difficult to travel to the airport by the designated time. The second emergency flight was scheduled to depart Cairo on Thursday. However, the Qantas jet suffered a mechanical problem on the way to Cairo and had to be grounded in Frankfurt. The jet was delayed for 13 hours as the airline waited for a brake part to be flown in from the United Kingdom. The jet departed Frankfurt at 8am on Friday morning and was expected to land in Cairo at 3.30am to retrieve the hundreds of stranded Australians. Other airlines are also in the process of evacuating citizens. China has announced it will send four planes to Cairo evacuate up to 2,000 travellers, as well as another two planes to Luxor. THAI airlines do not usually operate in Egypt, but they are making special preparations to fly to Cairo as soon as possible.
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