Talk about jumping to conclusions and going off half cocked........
One SMH article contained the comment:
Some were angry that their children had reportedly been dumped from a Virgin flight for which they had tickets so that airline staff could be evacuated: ''11 kids left stranded so virgin staff can escape cyclone,'' one mother wrote. ''Seats that they had booked a year ago.''
I suspect that at best that is maybe half the story, then there is the other side of the story and then there are the facts of the matter!
First it is stated "reportedly". That is at best, a maybe. The Schoolies are not alone:
Thousands of Australians are among those bracing for the onslaught of tropical cyclone Evan, which is bearing down on Fiji after cutting a swath through Samoa last week.
More than 180 registered schoolies who travelled to Fiji's popular Mana Island and Plantation resorts are believed to be among those Australians stranded in Fiji. However, the largest provider of schoolies celebrations in Fiji, Unleashed Travel, said it had evacuated all of its 500 customers from the country yesterday.
My guess, for what it is worth, it that the schoolies (and many other Australians) held confirmed travel tickets to travel sometime this week. The weather got worse and all wanted to travel on Sunday. The airline did what it was required to do - accept those with confirmed travel on Sunday's flights and fill the remaining seats from it's wait list of passengers holding confirmed travel tickets for later this week.
No one could expect Australian airlines to uplift "Thousands of Australians" out of Fiji in one or two days.