Sixteen people, including drunk passengers and their friends, have been removed from a Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Sydney, causing an 80-minute delay, the airline says.

The group, including the unruly passengers and some of their friends who chose to leave with them, were taken off the flight last night.

The crew then contacted the Australian Federal Police at Melbourne Airport as part of standard procedure.

A spokesperson for Jetstar said the company did not tolerate disruptive behaviour.

"We take security seriously and have strict rules on alcohol use, including the right to deny boarding or offload intoxicated passengers," they said.

"We don't tolerate disruptive behaviour by passengers on our flights, so our crew made a decision with the captain that a number of passengers would not travel on one of our Melbourne to Sydney services.

"Unfortunately the actions of this group interrupted the travel plans of other customers."

Jetstar said it had few issues related to irresponsible drinking and the majority of its customers behaved well.