Indonesian authorities have closed Bali and Lombok airports again this morning as volcanic ash from Mount Rinjani continues to disrupt flights.
The volcanic ash is sitting about one kilometre high and blowing north-west from Lombok to Bali.
According to the Ash Advisory Centre, the ash is too thick for aircraft to fly through safely. They’ve advised carriers to suspend flights until condition clear.
As a result, Virgin Australia and Jetstar have cancelled services scheduled to fly to or from Denpasar Airport before 6.00pm today.
Around nine Jetstar flights have been cancelled today including those scheduled to depart and arrive in Melbourne, Townsville, Perth and Singapore. While Virgin cancelled services to or from Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.
Both airlines said further updates will be available mid-today.
In the meantime, guests whose flights have been cancelled will be advised of their new flights via SMS or email. Alternatively they can contact the carriers: Virgin – Guest Contact Centre on 07 3119 7019 (from Australia), 00 1803 061 2002 (from Indonesia) 0r Jetstar – 131 538 (from Australia) and +62 803 852 9779 (from Indonesia).
“The safety of our guests and crew is our highest priority and we will keep customers updated as new information becomes available.”
Virgin Australia
This is the second time this year ash from Mount Rinjani has affected air services to Bali.
