Qantas grounded a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and cancelled a long-haul return flight after passengers reported bed bug bites on the Perth-to-Rome route, leaving travellers stranded for days.
The Sun reported that travellers on a Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner were bitten on a Friday flight from Perth to Rome, prompting the airline to pull the aircraft from service.
The Saturday return, flight QF6 from Rome back to Perth, was cancelled so engineers and maintenance teams could run a deep clean. Passengers were left stuck overseas while the jet was fumigated.
Qantas said the problem turned up on a small number of economy seats. The airline called the route a popular nonstop link between Australia and Italy, the kind of premium long-haul service holidaymakers book to avoid connections.
Stranded customers received accommodation and were rebooked on other flights within 48 hours of their original departure. That still meant days of disruption on what should have been a straightforward trip home.
A Qantas spokesperson issued a formal apology for the cancelled Rome-to-Perth service.
"We sincerely apologise to customers for the cancellation of Saturday’s Rome to Perth service, which allowed our engineers and maintenance teams to carry out a deep clean of the aircraft after an issue was identified on a small number of economy seats."
The airline also said cabins are cleaned regularly to a high standard and that planes are disinfected every 50 days as a precaution. Bed bugs measure about five millimetres, small enough to hide in seat seams and hard to spot until people start itching.
Fumigation is not a quick wipe-down. Once an infestation is found, the aircraft has to come offline so maintenance crews can treat it properly. Qantas is Australia’s best-known carrier, and a grounding on a flagship Dreamliner route is the kind of operational failure passengers notice immediately.
How many travellers reported bites, and whether those bites were medically confirmed as bed bugs, was not detailed in the available accounts. The aircraft registration was not named either. What is clear is the sequence: reported bites on the outbound leg, an issue found in economy, cancellation of the return, and a full deep clean.
Long-haul cabins are closed spaces for many hours. When pests turn up in the seats people paid to sit in, the airline owns the fix, and the delay. Qantas moved to clean the jet and rebook customers. The cancelled QF6 still left holidaymakers scrambling far from home.
Passengers buy nonstop tickets expecting clean seats and a working schedule. Basic cabin standards are not a luxury add-on, they are the job.
