[Jon B]

Major delays yesterday in Perth as a large storm sat over the city for most of the day till about 5pm. I was pretty happy as my Virgin flight to Mel was only delayed about 2 hours from 17:05, but i could see planes parked everywhere as they had been landing but could not unload or refuel with the storm just hanging around. I counted waiting for gates at 7pm on one taxiway 6 Qantas - 4 x 767 (i think we passed them on takeoff) and 2 x 737 aircraft and 1 Jetstar. Also there were other aircraft parked up around the various taxiways waiting on gates - about another 6 or so - seemed to be mainly Qantas. Lots of passengers sitting on planes on the ground on arrival for 4 - 6 hours so imagine the knock on delays would have been big. The Virgin flight to Sydney left just before ours but also went to Melbourne arrived about 1am and they were organising hotels in Mel. Adelaide flight was leaving at 1am Perth time delayed from 3 pm ish.

Full credit to all the Virgin staff who did a great job on a what was no doubt a difficult day for them - most passengers were understanding as you cant control the weather. Although i did hear one passenger in the Virgin lounge who was certain that Virgin had a spare aircraft ready to go!

All those aircraft sitting on the ground like that was probably a rare site in Perth (and one they would not wish to repeat i am sure).