Flights to Bali resume following volcanic eruption

JAKARTA - Several airlines resumed flights to Bali on Nov 14, after cancelling trips to and from the Indonesian resort island due to huge eruptions at a nearby volcano.

Eighty-three international routes were cancelled on Nov 13, the general manager of Bali’s international airport said in a statement, after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spewed a 9km tower of ash into the sky.

The volcano has erupted more than a dozen times over the last two weeks, killing at least nine people and forcing the evacuation of thousands.

Qantas and Jetstar were resuming their services to Bali, Australia’s Qantas Group said in a statement on Nov 14, noting “improved” conditions.

Two delayed Qantas flights from Nov 13 were among those set to take off, Qantas said.

“We will continue to monitor the changing conditions and volcanic activity,” it said in the statement.

AirAsia planned to resume some flights to and from Bali later on Nov 14, the company said in a statement to AFP, while Virgin Australia said on its website it would resume flights to and from Denpasar starting on Nov 14.

Singapore’s Scoot airline, meanwhile, said it had rescheduled flights from Singapore to Bali and Surabaya as well as their return flights due to Lewotobi Laki-Laki’s volcanic activity.

As of 3am local time on Nov 14, Bali’s airport had recorded another 32 international flight cancellations, general manager Ahmad Syaugi Shahab said.

He added that volcanic ash from Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki had been heading away from the airport since Nov 13 evening.

“We hope affected airline passengers can resume their travel on Thursday,” Ahmad said.

Lewotobi erupted again overnight into Nov 14 morning, and a thick ash column and lava flows could be seen pouring from its crater, according to the volcanology agency.

The airport in the tourist hotspot of Labuan Bajo near the volcano reopened on Nov 14, according to the airport’s Instagram account.

Laki-Laki, which means “man” in Indonesian, is twinned with a calmer volcano named after the Indonesian word for “woman”.

Bali’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. AFP