Asia-Pacific

Volcanic ash disrupts Australian airline flights

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-13 10:13

CANBERRA - Volcanic ash plume from Chile, which has made its way across the Atlantic and Indian oceans, on Monday continued to brought chaos to air travel across Australia.

Virgin resumed flights in and out of Melbourne, Tasmania and New Zealand on Monday morning, but all Qantas planes remained grounded until further notice.

Jetstar has canceled 64 international and domestic flights on Monday. The cancellations affect flights to and from New Zealand, Tasmania and Melbourne.

Tiger Airways has suspended all domestic flights until 11.30 am (AEST) on Monday, a statement on the airline's website said.

Airlines are waiting for more information from weather bureaus and the Australian Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Darwin of Northern Territory to see whether further cancellations are necessary, and are recommending passengers check the status of their flights online before arriving at the airport.

Virgin spokeswoman Melissa Thomson early on Monday morning said the airline believed it was safe to resume flights around or under the ash cloud.

"We decided to resume services based on information that we received from the Bureau of Meteorology and also the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center," she was quoted by ABC News.

She said other airlines would have to make their own decisions on how and when to restart services.

Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said more than 10,000 Qantas passengers and around 12,000 Jetstar passengers were affected by the flight cancellations on Sunday and Monday morning, a number that is now expected to increase.

She said that all Qantas flights in and out of Melbourne have been canceled until midday.

"This is an inconvenience, we do recognize that," she said, adding that the situation was "out of our control".

"Our Qantas group policy is that if there is any sign of ash cloud around we won't operate.

"The problem at the moment that we have is that we just don't know the density of this ash cloud. There isn't the technology here in Australia to determine that, so we don't know whether it's a thick ash cloud or one that 's quite thin.

"So at this stage, if there's any sign of ash we won't be flying."

Several sporting and commentary teams have been caught up in the mass flight cancellations. Australia Football League teams Essendon and Richmond have been prevented from returning to Melbourne, with the Essendon stranded in Perth and the Richmond in Sydney.

The eruption is also causing travel chaos in parts of Argentina and Uruguay, and has also affected flights in the south of Brazil.