Flights to Bali resume following volcanic eruption

JAKARTA: Several airlines resumed flights to Bali on Thursday, 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 Wednesday, the general manager of Bali’s international airport said in a statement, after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spewed a nine-kilometre (5.6-mile) 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 are resuming their services to Bali, Australia’s Qantas Group said in a statement Thursday, noting “improved” conditions.

Jetstar will operate six flights, while Qantas will operate one scheduled flight and two delayed flights from yesterday, Qantas Group said.

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

As of early Thursday morning, Bali’s airport had recorded another 32 international flight cancellations while 180 international flights were scheduled, the airport’s general manager Ahmad Syaugi Shahab said.

He added that volcanic ash from Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki has been heading away from the airport since Wednesday evening.

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

Lewotobi erupted again overnight into Thursday 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 Thursday, according to the airport’s Instagram.

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.