Indonesia’s Bali airport reopens after volcanic eruption

“The airport is open now in Bali”, he said, but added that it was not clear when flights would resume.

“Bali is our second largest hub and this will also affect our global connecting flights”, said Ikhsan Rosan, a spokesman for the airline.

Should that confirm conditions are suitable, all Saturday flights out of Denpasar today will go ahead.

Garuda Indonesia, Qantas, Jetstar, AirAsia and Virgin Australia will resume flights to and from Denpasar airport in Bali where at least 4000 Australians (official estimate, actual figure is expected to be higher) are stranded due to the stoppage of flights after the volcanic eruptions of Mount Ruang.

Mount Raung, which is located in the eastern province of Java, has been erupting for nearly a week now, forcing severe flight disruptions between Bali and Australia, as per Reuters.

Melbourne teacher Brad Kendall was trying to get home to Australia from Bali as school holidays come to an end.

“I haven’t really been that anxious about the flight being cancelled otherwise”, she said. “We want to cancel our hotel stay for tonight, but we also do not know how long we will be in Jakarta”, said a frustrated Belgian tourist.

His wife, Michelle, said she was anxious there would be ongoing delays. “The loss of time is bad, but there’s little you can do about an erupting volcano”.

Virgin sent an observation flight to Denpasar so its pilots could have visual confirmation of the conditions before recommencing operations.

Ngurah Rai global Airport had been closed since late Thursday as Mount Raung on Java spewed clouds of ash into the sky, grounding hundreds of flights during peak tourist season on the resort island.

The ash grounded planes from Virgin, Jetstar, Garuda and AirAsia on Friday, after earlier closures immediately after the eruption. Two other airports on the island of Lombok, east of Bali, were reopened Friday after being temporarily shut.

Affected passengers on Jetstar and Virgin are able to rebook their travel without penalty within 14 days, or request a travel credit.

Both airlines organised additional services to return stranded holidaymakers, however, they must still adhere to the latest advice from VAAC provided this morning.

Australian carriers Virgin Australia and Jetstar began cancelling flights earlier than other airlines, and had already axed a number of services in recent days even before Bali airport was fully closed.

The cancelled flights were TG664, scheduled to leave Suvarnabhumi airport for Shanghai at 11am, and TG665, scheduled to leave Shanghai at 5.25pm (local time) and arrive at Suvarnabhumi airport at 9pm.