Police had to escort two male passengers off a Virgin Blue plane at Melbourne airport on Thursday after they refused to be bumped.

The pilot had asked two passengers to leave the flight to compensate for extra fuel needed to counter bad weather predicted for the route to Bali.

When no one volunteered, cabin crew chose the last two people to board the plane.

The Sunday Herald Sun newspaper quoted another passengers as saying the whole plane sympathised with the ejected men.

"They had taken care to book their flights, they were ready to go to Bali and then they were told they couldn't," the passenger said.

Virgin Blue said the incident was "totally regrettable", but bad weather meant the amount of spare fuel needed to be doubled.