Australian airlines have cancelled flights to and from Bali after ash from the holiday destination’s Mount Agung closed Denpasar’s airport.
Jetstar and Virgin Australia said Monday they were cancelling all flights for Monday.
“Flying conditions in Bali have worsened this morning due to the ash cloud from the Mount Agung volcano,” Jetstar said on its website.
“As a result, all our flights in and out of Bali for Monday, 27 November have been cancelled.
“While these disruptions are frustrating, we will always put safety before schedule. We appreciate customers’ patience.
“You can check the status of you flight from the Flight Status page on Jetstar.com or via our smartphone app.”
Virgin Australia said it was continuing to closely monitor activity at Mt Agung.
“Due to the significant volcanic ash and current weather conditions, Denpasar Airport is now closed and we have cancelled today’s flights to and from Bali,” it said in a travel alert issued Monday.
“The safety of our guests and crew is our highest priority and our team of meteorologists continue to monitor the situation in consultation with the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.
“Guests with changes to their flight schedule will be contacted directly by SMS and email.”
Qantas and AirAsia also cancelled their flights.
All AirAsia and AirAsia X flights in and out of Bali have been cancelled as well as flights to and from nearby Lombok.
“Affected guests will be notified of their flight status via email and SMS,” AirAsia said. “AirAsia strongly encourages all guests to update their contact details at airasia.com to ensure that they are notified of any updates to their flights.”
The closure comes after Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre earlier issued warnings about the direction and height of the ash cloud.
These showed that the ash cloud will be over the airport by 3pm (0715Z) this afternoon.
There is visible incandescence from the crater with high pressure thick gray ash plume with a height 2500-3000 m above the crater according to local observers.
Read: Flying in the golden age.
Travelers are urged to check with airline’s websites as the situation is being monitored continuously.
Late yesterday four AirAsia flights between Denpasar and Perth were canceled because of the ash cloud while Virgin Australia scrapped its flights from the Eastern States of Australia to Bali.
The cancellations threw the holiday arrangements of hundreds of travelers into chaos.
Winds at this time year are from the north-east to north-west, meaning that the ash cloud could very quickly be blown across the airport and then be clear.
Complicating matters is the heavy cloud, which makes it difficult to see the ash cloud and the limited range of some planes that operate the flights.
The alert level for aviation was raised to red by the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre on Saturday.
The Darwin VAAC said that the volcanic ash cloud was drifting up to 22,000ft or 7000m.
Over the past months, 140,000 people have been evacuated from the region around the volcano when it was on high alert but that number is reduced to about 30,000 after the alert levels were lowered.
Indonesian authorities downgraded their eruption warning for Mt Agung in late October after a decrease in seismic activity.
The alert was boosted to the highest threat level in September amid fears an explosive eruption was imminent.
Mt Agung’s last major eruption was in 1963 and killed more than 1100 people. That eruption lasted for more than a year.
