Auatralian airline scrambles to find seats

Australia’s second largest airline scrambled today to find seats for thousands of passengers after aviation authorities grounded 10 of its planes because of sloppy maintenance.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) grounded Ansett Airline’s 10 Boeing 767s because of safety concerns and threatened to ground the carrier’s remaining 53 planes unless the company can prove its maintenance operations meet safety guidelines.

The planes are unlikely to be allowed to fly again until early next week.

CASA’s unprecedented order came on Ansett’s busiest day of the year and left thousands of people with travel plans during the long Easter holiday weekend stranded at the airport.

Ansett spokesman Geoff Lynch said the airline was leasing planes and finding seats on rival carriers to ensure 35,000 people scheduled to fly tomorrow got to their destinations.

Ansett, which is owned by Air New Zealand, flies to destinations across Australia and Asia.

There were long lines of travellers at rival airlines’ counters at Sydney Airport early today.