Bali flights grounded by towering ash cloud from volcanic eruption

A volcano on a remote Indonesian island continues to spew towering columns of hot ash into the air, making it too dangerous for flights to land or depart from Bali’s international airport.

Travellers have been stranded at Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai airport since flight cancellations began on Tuesday night local time.

“The airline did not provide accommodation, leaving us stranded at this airport,” said Charlie Austin from Perth, Australia, who was on vacation in Bali with his family.

It is unclear when the ash cloud will clear and allow the airport to resume normal operations.

Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano on the island of Flores in East Nusa Tenggara province has been shooting hot ash high into the air since it first erupted on 4 November, killing nine people and injuring dozens of others.

The 1,584-meter volcano shot up ash at least 17 times on Tuesday, with the largest column recorded at 9 kilometres high, the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation said in a statement.

Bali flights: Are all departures and arrivals cancelled?

I Gusti Ngurah Rai airport’s website currently shows most international departures for today (Wednesday) as either cancelled or delayed, while a few flights, to destinations such as Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur do appear to be taking off as scheduled.

The advice to passengers is to contact your airline or check their website or social media channels before leaving for the airport.

Over the past four days, 84 flights, including 36 scheduled to depart and 48 due to arrive, were cancelled or delayed.

Airport authorities said that at least 26 domestic flights and 64 overseas ones were cancelled on Wednesday alone, including airlines from Singapore, Hong Kong, Qatar, India and Malaysia. For these cancellations, the airlines were offering travellers a refund, or to reschedule or reroute.

Three Australian airlines have also cancelled or delayed a number of flights. Jetstar has paused its flights to Bali until at least Thursday, it said on its website, saying it was “currently not safe” to operate the route.

Virgin Australia’s website showed 10 services to and from Bali were cancelled on Wednesday. Qantas said it has delayed three flights. Some airlines are offering fare refunds for upcoming Bali flights to passengers who don’t want to travel.

Air New Zealand canceled a flight to Denpasar scheduled for Wednesday and a return service to Auckland due to depart Bali on Thursday. Passengers would be rebooked and the airline would continue to monitor the movement of ash in the coming days, Chief Operating Officer Alex Marren said.

Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano: 9 kilometre high ash cloud

Authorities on Tuesday expanded the danger zone as the volcano erupted again to 9 kilometres high. Volcanic materials, including smoldering rocks, lava, and hot, thumb-size fragments of gravel and ash, have been thrown up to 8 kilometres from the crater since Friday.

About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki began erupting, spewing thick clouds and forcing the government to close the island’s Fransiskus Xaverius Seda Airport. No casualties or major damage were reported, but the airport has remained closed because of seismic activity.

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Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes in the East Flores district of East Nusa Tenggara province, known locally as the husband-and-wife mountains. “Laki laki” means man, while its mate is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman. It’s one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 280 million people.

The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.