Air NZ flight to Bali cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud

Transport ministry spokesman JA Barata said Ngurah Rai airport would be closed for several hours from midday (0400 GMT) due to ash drifting from Mount Raung, on Indonesia’s main Java island.

Air New Zealand has been forced to cancel flight NZ245 from Auckland to Denpasar due to ash from Mount Raung around Denpasar Airport. The Indonesian Department of Transport said that the airport is closed today, August 6, from 12pm to 6pm.

Air traffic is regularly disrupted by volcanic eruptions in Indonesia, which sits on a belt of seismic activity running around the basin of the Pacific Ocean and is home to the highest number of active volcanoes in the world, around 130.

And, it has decided not to resume flying today on the basis of safety reasons.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport after airlines, including from Australia, cancelled flights, local television reported. Flight JQ117 from Singapore to Bali will also be cancelled tomorrow. Cancelled flights from Bali to Singapore are JQ116 and 3K242.

Jetstar said that they will wait for the next VAAC information before making a decision on tomorrow’s flying plans. Another flight that was scheduled to depart for Bali at 9.15pm tonight has been “rescheduled until further notice”.

It is not the first time that the airport has to announce closure.

The closure “is because of the spread of volcanic ash from Mount Raung this morning”, he told Xinhua.