Several Australian airlines on Wednesday cancelled their flights to and from the Indonesian resort island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower miles into the sky. Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all issued advisories announcing changes to their flight schedules after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a nine-kilometre (5.6-mile) tower a day earlier.
"Virgin Australia has made some changes to its current flight schedule, due to the impacts of the volcano in Indonesia," the airline said, listing scrapped flights to Sydney and Melbourne. Jetstar said all flights to and from Bali would be halted until noon on Thursday. "Due to volcanic ash caused by the Mount Lewotobi eruption in Indonesia, it is currently not safe to operate flights to and from Bali," the company said in an advisory.
Qantas said "a number of flights to and from Denpasar Airport in Bali have been disrupted" due to volcanic ash from Lewotobi. Ahmad Syaugi Shahab, general manager of Bali's international airport, said in a statement Wednesday 12 domestic and 22 international flights were affected a day ago, without identifying the routes. He did not provide details about affected flights on Wednesday's schedule.
Sign up to get our free daily email of the biggest stories! "Due to this natural event impacting flight operations, airlines are offering affected passengers the options of refunds, rescheduling, or re-routing," he added. Bali's international airport operator PT Angkasa .
