The Australian Passport Office (APO) is under the pump again.
Just when it seemed like it was clearing its backlog –attributed to staff shortages – it appears now a printer is on the blink.
The Herald Sun reported this week that a vital passport printer is experiencing ‘issues’ at the Melbourne office with potential travellers being turned away from the office without their passports.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) website states there is a wait time of six weeks, but some travellers have claimed they are still waiting months after applying.
A priority service is available for $225, but that’s not going to help if the APO can’t print it out.
DFAT told the Herald Sun: “We are working with affected customers to minimise the impact.” Which sounds like a non-answer if ever I heard one.
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Name day
Budget airline Bonza has taken the brave step of asking its customers to name its planes.
The airline says it wants to ‘nick your name’ and is asking Aussies to comment on the Fly Bonza social pages with their nicknames, which will be used to name a plane or two.
Suggestions so far include ‘Parmy’ apparently a submission designed to infuriate those who know the pub staple as ‘parmi’, Cracka, Gubbi, Bin Chicken, Flamin’ Galah, Crikey, Honk Honkler, Vegemite and of course PlaneyMcPlaneFace. There’s a lot of you out there with weird nicknames.
The suggestions will be given to Bonza’s Local Legends to choose the best names.
The local legends are locals at each of Bonza’s destinations who act as ambassadors for the airline.
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Travel warning
Australian government travel advice website smartraveller.gov.au has issued a travel warning for Iceland.
The Fagradalsfjall volcano near Reykjavik is erupting and smartraveller is advising visitors to avoid the area and follow the advice of local authorities.
So far there have not been any adverse impacts on people or travel and Iceland doesn’t even seem that bothered by it.
The country’s travel ‘warnings’ consist of how to hike to the site and what car parks to use, although they do make a point of telling people not to walk on the lava, which is very sensible, but shouldn’t really need to be said.
But it pays to be careful. In 2010 a series of volcanic events in Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull area shut down travel across much of Europe as the area was shrouded in volcanic ash. About 20 countries closed their airspace. Scientists are not expecting a similar event.
It’s not all bad, the recent eruption in Tonga led to spectacular sunsets around the world, maybe we can expect more of that.
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