Several airlines have cancelled flights between Australia and Bali due to dangerous ash clouds from a volcano near the Indonesian holiday island.
Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia advised passengers of the disruptions on Wednesday, saying the ash from Mount Lewotaobi Laki-laki made it unsafe to fly. The volcano spewed a 9km (6.2 miles) ash column into the sky over the weekend, one week after a major erruption killed 10 people
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has also warned that the volcanic ash might drift to parts of the country’s north on Wednesday. Jetstar said all flights to and from Bali until 12:00 Australian Eastern Daylight Time Thursday (04:00 GMT) have been cancelled. Virgin Australia cancelled all its flights to and from Bali on Wednesday.
Jetstar also said it would soon mount additional flights between Bali and Australia using its larger Boeing 787 aircraft to move more passengers. Activities in Indonesia have also been affected by the volcanic ash.
A jazz festival in Labuan Bajo town, some 600km from Mount Lewotaobi Laki-laki, was postponed to next year due to safety concerns. Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an area of high seismic activity atop multiple tectonic plates, and has about 130 active volcanoes.
Past volcanic eruptions have disrupted aviation. In 2020, ash clouds from Mount Merapi shut an airport in the city of Solo.
