Bedbugs were found in the front of the economy section of the aircraft operating QF5 from Perth to Rome on 9 October, a source with knowledge of the incident confirmed. The plane was taken out of service for cleaning after its arrival in the Italian capital, resulting in the cancellation of the Qantas Rome to Perth service on 10 October.
A Qantas spokesperson said the flight was cancelled to allow engineers and maintenance teams to carry out a deep clean after "an issue identified on a small number of economy seats". The airline said it wanted to "sincerely apologise" to customers for the disruption.
Affected passengers were given accommodation and rebooked on alternative flights within 48 hours of their original departure. Qantas said its aircraft cabins are cleaned regularly and to a high standard, treated with disinfectant every 50 days as a standard precautionary measure.
Professor Michelle Power, a parasitologist at Macquarie University, said the bedbugs had "more than likely" been brought onto the plane in someone's luggage or on a passenger's clothes. Bedbugs are small insects that feed on the blood of some mammals, including humans, and can be difficult to eradicate.