Airlines resume Bali flights as volcano slows

January 30, 2011 | 18:47

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Flights to and from Indonesian resort island of Bali have resumed after dangerous ash spewing from an Indonesian volcano abated, an official said Sunday.

>>Airlines cancel Bali flights to avoid volcano ash

"All international flights have resumed since yesterday. The volcanic ash no longer poses a threat," the airport's air traffic operations manager Ketut Subamia told AFP.

More than 30 international flights to and from the island were cancelled or diverted after ash belched from East Java's Mount Bromo and drifted into airspace over Bali on Thursday.

Thousands of foreign tourists, mostly from Australia, were stranded, airlines said.

The airlines which cancelled flights included Australian companies Jetstar and Virgin Blue, along with Cathay Pacific, KLM, Singapore Airlines, China Airlines, Korean Air and Qatar Airways.

Mount Bromo began rumbling in November and the government had raised the eruption threat warning to the maximum red alert before lowering it last month.

Indonesia's most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, has killed more than 350 people in a series of violent eruptions which started in late October.

Unlike Merapi, the countryside around Bromo is not densely populated as it lies within the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park, a huge caldera containing several volcanoes.

AFP

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