Bali’s airport closed for another day
Bali’s international airport will remain closed until 0845 local time on Friday as the Mount Rinjani ash cloud continues to cause havoc and unsafe flying conditions around the Indonesian island.
On Wednesday, both Jetstar and Virgin Australia cancelled all flights to and from Bali scheduled to depart before 5pm on Thursday.
The airlines will update evening flights for Thursday after midday.
“We’ll continue to monitor the movement of the ash cloud from Mt Rinjani in Lombok, Indonesia and will resume flying as soon as it is safe to do so,” Jetstar said in a statement.
Hundreds of flights were grounded – 183 domestic arrivals, 169 domestic departures, 157 international arrivals and 163 international departures.
Australian tourists on Jetstar, Virgin Australia and AirAsia were among them.
The Indonesian government’s head of volcano observation in eastern Indonesia, Devy Kamil Syahbana, says Mt Barujari – a cylindrical cone inside Mt Rinjani’s caldera – had an “opening eruption” on October 25 and will continue to cause problems for several more days.
Ash clouds were expected to blow towards Bali for several more days, the Bureau of Meteorology said on Thursday.
Overnight winds have pushed plumes of ash about 750 kilometres southwest of Mt Rinjani, which has been spewing ash since early last week.
The edge of the ash clouds are now hovering near Denpasar airport, which remains closed due to unsafe flying conditions.
The Australian mainland is not expected to be affected by volcanic ash, but holiday plans of thousands of Australians have been thrown into disarray following the grounding of hundreds of flights.
Its last similar event was in 2009, which lasted for 15 months.
The volcano has not only hit the travel plans of thousands of holidaymakers, but police have been forced to delay plans to deport the Indian gangster known as Chhota Rajan, who was captured in Bali last week.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
airlines ash cloud aviation bali indonesia Mount RinjaniLatest News
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