Jetstar has come under fire after changing a pre-Christmas flight.

A Victorian couple planning to visit a sick parent in New Zealand for Christmas were told on Saturday via email that their flight to Auckland on 23 December would now depart on 28 December.

Jetstar, now scrambling to find alternatives for the 80 or so affected passengers, has claimed the timetable change was unavoidable and the result of the carrier’s need to “maximise our aircraft utilisation”, The Age reported.

“A small number of Jetstar passengers are being transferred onto alternative Melbourne-to-Auckland services due to schedule changes in December,” a Jetstar spokesperson told the paper.

The budget carrier is reportedly contacting affected customers via telephone or social media to “get them to where they need to be”, but some customers are unimpressed with the lack of suitable alternatives.

“It's a month before Christmas, I'm sure they could organise something between now and then, like put us on another flight,” Jetstar passenger Ruth Proctor said after she contacted the airline to complain.