An outbreak of bed bugs has forced the cancellation of a Qantas flight from Rome to Perth, delaying some passengers by as much as two days.
The drama began when passengers aboard QF5 travelling from Perth to Rome on October 9 complained of being bitten by bugs. On medical advice, they were given antihistamines, but the plane reportedly ran out.
The return flight, QF6 from Rome to Perth on Saturday, was cancelled and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner booked for cleaning.
Passengers were given accommodation and rebooked on alternative flights within 48 hours of their original departure, Qantas said.
A spokesperson for the airline said: “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 Perth-Rome route is a popular non-stop flight that attracts passengers from the east coast who are willing to pay a premium for the direct connection between Australia and Italy. Qantas extended the seasonal flight service from May 3 to October 23, adding 40 extra services and close to 10,000 seats in that time.
Bed bugs are tiny (about five millimetres). The wingless parasites feed exclusively on blood, preferring human blood, and spread via clothing, furniture and belongings.
“Bed bugs are not believed to transmit diseases to humans,” according to the Victorian government’s Better Health Channel website. “Their bite typically causes a large, reddened and itchy weal that fades to a red spot.”
Bed bug bites are painless, Better Health says, and “some people do not react to the bites, but for others the bites can become itchy and swell into reddened weals [or welts].”
Qantas said its aircraft cabins are cleaned regularly and to an extremely high standard. A deep clean of a plane to rid it of bed bugs requires fumigation, taking the plane out of service.
The airline said that as a matter of course, Qantas aircraft are disinfected every 50 days as a precaution.
Still cases of bed bugs on planes are not unheard of.
In a 2017 example, bed bugs were found on a British Airways flight from Vancouver to London. In 2024 passengers on a Turkish Airways flight from Johannesburg to Istanbul reported an outbreak of the bugs.
The Better Health Channel reports that “although bed bugs can harbour diseases in their bodies, transmission to humans is highly unlikely”.
They are not dangerous, unless a person is allergic to them, the health service said.
“However, their presence can be distressing and their bites can be highly irritating.”
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