Many passengers have been caught unawares by the grounding of Tiger Airways, turning up at airports to find their flights have been cancelled.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority grounded all Tiger's domestic flights for a week from 11pm last night.
Many passengers hadn't heard when they arrived at airports on this morning.
One woman said she was "unimpressed" to find her flight cancelled at Sydney airport.
"I mean, the airline may as well just close down," she told TV crews.
"This is just pathetic.
"You get here and then 'they're banned, sorry no flights'."
Are you a Tiger Airlines passenger? Contact sunday@theage.com.au or 8667 2250 to tell us your story.
The woman said safety had to come first, but the grounding should have been better publicised.
Another woman said she drove for an hour to get to the airport before hearing there would be no flight.
"(I'm) just not happy, this is our holiday, they don't even call us to say you're not flying," she said.
It is understood Tiger did manage to alert some passengers via text messages this morning.
Tiger has told customers booked to travel with it in the next week not to bother going to an airport and that they will be offered a full refund or a credit for deferred travel.
With the grounding coinciding with the start of school holidays in NSW and Victoria, travellers are now scrambling to get on flights with other airlines.
Belinda Merhab, who flew with Tiger from Melbourne to Sydney yesterday, said she jumped on the internet to book a new return flight with Virgin.
"The flight I got back cost me more than the whole return trip I got with Tiger," she said.
Ms Merhab said she had flown with Tiger about 20 times without incident but was unlikely to fly with them again.
Meanwhile, rival airlines are offering deals to stranded Tiger passengers, though they will still have to fork out for new flights.
Jetstar and Virgin Australia have put on extra flights while Qantas is also considering boosting its capacity as tens of thousands of Australians head away for the school holidays.
About 35,000 passengers are affected by Tiger's grounding.
Other airlines were today trying to accommodate Tiger passengers on existing flights while also putting on extra services.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said Jetstar would put on additional services and Qantas would add extra capacity if there was sufficient demand.
Qantas's low-cost offshoot, Jetstar, added extra flights today between Melbourne and the Gold Coast, Sydney and the Gold Coast, and Sydney and the Sunshine Coast.
Virgin Australia said it would put on additional flights during the coming week.
All three airlines are offering special fares to passengers with cancelled Tiger flights.
AAP
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