Thousands of Australians remain stranded in Bali this morning after volcanic eruptions forced the cancellation of dozens of flights.
Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin have all pulled the pin on travel to and from Bali’s Denpasar Airport, declaring the volcanic ash has made it unsafe to fly.
“Due to volcanic ash caused by the Mount Lewotobi eruption in Indonesia, it is currently not safe to operate flights to and from Bali,” Jetstar said in a statement.
“As a result, all Jetstar flights to and from Denpasar Airport in Bali have been cancelled until at least 12noon AEDT, Thursday 14 November.
The airline said while it understands it is frustrating, safety remains the number one priority.
“Capacity on our existing scheduled services is limited and we understand that some customers may be concerned about how quickly they can rebook their flights,” the airline said.
“We continue to monitor the situation closely and are planning to add extra flights to get customers to their destination as soon as possible.
“This is an evolving situation, and we recommend passengers check their flight status at Jetstar.com before coming to the airport”.
All airlines are expected to reassess the situation later this morning to make a call on whether any flights will leave this afternoon, however there are fears travel disruptions may push into next week with further volcanic eruptions possible.
“We sincerely regret any disruption this may cause and assure our guests that our team is working diligently to rebook all impacted guests to their destinations as safely and promptly as possible,” Virgin Australia said.
The travel chaos follows a huge eruption on Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki last week, which killed 10 people.
