One airline said it often gets little notice of when or where it can expect rockets to fall from the sky so flights have been delayed to ensure safety.

Delayed flights are nothing new, but Australian airline Qantas has come up with a rather novel excuse for late departures. It says its services between Sydney and Johannesburg are being delayed because of falling space junk.

The flights cross a portion of the southern Indian Ocean that US launch company SpaceX has earmarked for the splashdown of re-entering rockets.

Qantas says it often gets little notice of when or where it can expect rockets to fall from the sky, and as such, has regularly delayed flights to ensure safety.

“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,” Qantas told Euronews Travel.