Falling debris from Elon Musk's SpaceX rockets causing flight delays

Qantas confirmed flights on its Sydney-Johannesburg had been delayed due to debris falling over the Indian Ocean, the location chosen by SpaceX for re-entry owing to its remoteness.

Ben Holland, Qantas’s head of operations, confirmed that while carriers work with SpaceX to avoid disruption, debris warnings frequently came at short notice.

“Over the past few weeks, we’ve had to delay several flights between Johannesburg and Sydney due to advice received from the US government regarding the re-entry of SpaceX rockets over an extensive area of the southern Indian Ocean," The Guardian cites Holland as saying.

"While we try to make any changes to our schedule in advance, the timing of recent launches have moved around at late notice which has meant we’ve had to delay some flights just prior to departure. Our teams notify customers of changes to their flight as soon as we know it will be impacted.

“We’re in contact with SpaceX to see if they can refine the areas and time windows for the rocket re-entries to minimise future disruption to our passengers on the route."