Australians travelling to and from Bali face continued delays after a volcanic eruption near the Indonesian holiday spot created dangerous ash clouds.
Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia have cancelled multiple flights amid safety concerns, leaving passengers stranded.
Jetstar has also grounded all flights to and from Denpasar Airport until at least noon AEDT on Thursday.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted on Sunday. Source: AAP / AP
Virgin and Qantas are monitoring the situation.
Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as cancelled on Wednesday, according to an AFP journalist at Bali’s international airport.
Nine dead, thousands evacuated
The emergency began on Sunday when Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano erupted, spewing an ash column 9km high.
Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in recent weeks have killed nine people, with 31 injured and more than 11,000 evacuated, Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said on Tuesday.
Eruptions can pose serious risks to flights, disgorging fine ash that can damage jet engines and scour a plane’s windscreen to the point of invisibility.
“Due to volcanic ash caused by Mount Lewotobi in Indonesia, it is currently not safe to operate to and from Bali,” Jetstar said on Wednesday.
“All Jetstar flights to and from Denpasar Airport in Bali have been cancelled until at least 12 noon AEDT tomorrow, Thursday 14 November,” the company said in a statement.
“We understand that this is a difficult situation for impacted customers.”
Qantas said “a number of flights to and from Denpasar Airport in Bali have been disrupted” due to volcanic ash from Lewotobi.
Malaysia Airlines said it had cancelled six flights Wednesday in a statement on its website.
Singapore’s Scoot and Malaysia’s AirAsia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Singapore Airlines was still listing its flights as running on Wednesday.
Laki-Laki, which means “man” in Indonesian, is twinned with a calmer volcano named after the Indonesian word for “woman”.
The island’s economy is heavily reliant on tourism but Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth, straddling the Pacific Ring of Fire where tectonic plates collide.
and sparked a mass exodus of foreigners from the tropical paradise.
