I agree with OZ Ocker's sentiments, and am once again amazed at how aviation people's opinions can be so blind reading the above posts.
By comparing Virgin's airport emergency situation, with Jetstar's normal operation you aren't comparing equal situations.
Comparing normal ops every day service between the two low cost carriers, I know who I wouldn't ever fly with - EVER.
Recently, a friend of mine flew on Jetstar as her travelling partner had paid for the ticket. When she checked in an hour early to please the airline, she was told that her flight had been cancelled, and that all pax had been telephoned and advised, in spite of the fact that neither she nor any of the PAX in the line around her had received a call. The travelled on the next flight, which in turn was delayed. All up it took her EIGHT HOURS to travel SYD - OOL - she would have been better off to drive
. On the aeroplane, she was amazed at the lack of professionalism displayed by the cabin crew who gossiped between each other all flight so PAX could clearly hear, at the same time ignoring the PAX.
Crap wages and poor conditions results in high staff turnover, and that impacts the quality of any business.
Australia is a very wealthy country indeed, yet our airlines are striving to reduce their service to below third world standard under the miss guided belief that cost is all that matters. It's not.
Why would you drive to an airport in a nice car, having left your nice house that is probably worth at least half a million dollars, enter the airport and get treated like crap for between two and ten hours because you flew on a low cost carrier, then arrive at your destination and go off to your five star hotel again to be treated like a king ??
The Low cost carrier is something that we will look back on in th efuture and wonder what they were thinking!!