Virgin Blue has announced that it will shut its web and kiosk check-in services from October 5-7 as the airline transitions to its primary check-in system following a hardware failure during the previous week.
Virgin CEO John Borghetti said in a statement that the initial problem which caused chaos at airports around the country on September 26 has been identified and resolved and that it will revert to its primary operating system by the morning of October 6. This will result in the airline having to shut down its web, kiosk and Check mate check in services, therefore requiring all passengers to use counters to complete check in from 8pm AEDST on October 5 until 5am on October 7. The airline’s online and phone reservations systems will also be taken offline from 9pm AEST on October 5.
The failure of the airline’s New Skies reservations system on September 26 was traced back to the failure of a solid state disk device, and forced the airline to switch to manual processing of passengers until it was restored the following day. That led to thousands of passengers experiencing flight delays or cancellations.