Indonesia’s Mount Rinjani spews volcanic ash, cancels Bali flights

Mount Rinjani in Indonesia spewed volcanic ash on Tuesday, causing the cancellation of flights to and from Bali. The situation stranded a lot of tourists in the Indonesian holiday destination as Virgin, Jetstar and Tigerair cancelled flights.

Passengers of the three air carriers, which fly between Bali and the Australian cities of Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney, are stranded at the Denpassar Airport. The volcano, located in Lombok, only spewed ash, although its last eruption was on Nov 4, 2015.

Jetstar cancelled on Tuesday night the following flights: JQ38 Bali-Sydney, JQ58 Bali-Brisbane, JQ116 Bali-Singapore, JQ128 Bali-Adelaide, JQ57 Brisbane-Bali, JQ116 Perth-Bali and JQ127 Adelaide-Bali. The air carrier expects to resume its service on Wednesday afternoon, but the two other airlines have not yet decided if it would fly out of Bali, reports 9 News.

Jetstar decided to fly after it got information from the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, following Mount Ranjani's ash spew, reports Sydney Morning Herald. While Jetstar would schedule additional flights, the budget carrier of Qantas says because of its extremely busy network, it would take some time before it could clear its passenger backlog.

Virgin has cancelled four flights, the VA70 to Sydney and VA46 to Brisbane on Tuesday night, and the VA41 from Brisbane and VA65 from Sydney on Wednesday. Tigerair delayed its TT19 Perth to Bali and TT2 Bali to Melbourne trips on Wednesday and promised to update travelers at 10:30 am AEST.

However, it advised its Wednesday passengers to check in for their flights according to normal scheduled departure time, unless Tigerair notifies them.

VIDEO: Indonesia Closes Bali Airport Due to Volcanic Eruption

Source: BBC WORLD NEWS