Before sunrise Saturday, the Virgin bag drop line wound through the T3 terminal – all the way into international departures in T2.

The domestic queue was so protracted that some overseas travellers mistakenly tacked themselves on to the end, not realising it snaked some 200 metres thought to domestic departures.

While the mood had brightened for most by 9am, some travellers arrived at the airport to find their flights cancelled.

In the 30 minutes between checking in and dropping off their bags, South Yarra couple Sarah Ogilvie and Tim Abdallah found their 9.15am flight to Perth was scrapped.

“They haven’t actually even apologised, they just told us it was school holidays,” Abdallah said.

“We were told we could wait ... another person in the same situation got an email saying she’d been rebooked on Monday. She’s going there on business, so forget about it, she might as well not bother.

“It’s pretty annoying. I’m just not accustomed to this happening.”

Valerie Hur said of the six families she knew travelling to Cairns this week, her flight was the only one not pulled – some at the last minute.

“One had hers cancelled last night with a different airline, so now she’s on an eight-hour journey to Cairns. That’s really put the long lines into perspective for us,” she said.

“It’s a sign of the times. We’re just happy to be getting away.”

Virgin Australia said Saturday morning that it was not immune to the challenges being experienced globally, and its team was working to get travellers to their destinations with minimal disruption.

“Airports and airlines globally are experiencing huge demand as travellers return to the sky as pandemic restrictions ease,” a spokeswoman said.

“More and more people are travelling and that means more and more pressure on our team and our operations.”

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