Chile voclano ash-hit flights resume

22 June 2011 Last updated at 00:52 GMT Qantas said 50,000 passengers would be affected by Tuesday and Wednesday's disruption Flights are gradually resuming from airports across Australia after two days of cancellations caused by an ash cloud from a Chilean volcano.

Qantas and Virgin jets took off from Adelaide on Wednesday morning. Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney airports were expected to resume flights later.

But the ash is heading towards New Zealand, where disruption is expected.

Many travellers spent the night at airports as flights were disrupted for the second time in just over a week.

Last week, tens of thousands of people had their travel plans ruined as ash from the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano passed over several Australian cities and New Zealand.

By last Friday, all flights were running normally, but the ash cloud circled the Earth for a second time and caused further disruption.

This time, the plume hovered at between 20,000 and 40,000ft (6-13km), which experts advised was too low for airlines to fly underneath.

If volcanic ash particles are ingested into a jet engine, they accumulate and clog it with molten glass, which can cause the engine to shut down.

'Optimistic'

On Wednesday, Andrew Tupper of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre said Hobart would be the only state capital with ash over it at the end of the day.

He told Australia's ABC that most of the ash was heading towards New Zealand and was unlikely to reappear over Australia.

"The volcano is still erupting but not at the same levels. It is very unusual for ash clouds to do two circuits of the globe," he said.

Flights to New Zealand will continue to be disrupted by the ash cloud, but Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said it was possible all flight schedules would return to normal on Thursday.

Despite the forecast, passengers are still facing significant delays and are advised to contact their airlines for updates.

Virgin said 13,000 domestic passengers would be affected on Wednesday, while Qantas said it expected 30,000 to be delayed, on top of the 20,000 who were left stranded by Tuesday's disruption.

Greyhound is running extra bus services in Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane to help clear the backlog, while trains between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne will have extra carriages.

The Tourism and Transport Forum said the ash had caused the largest disruption to Australia's aviation industry since a pilots' strike in 1989.

Analysts at Macquarie Equities estimate the disruptions will cost Qantas about $21m and Virgin $11m.

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Chile volcano halts Perth flights

15 June 2011 Last updated at 08:19 GMT The departures board at Perth Airport in Western Australia showed a string of cancellations Flights into and out of Perth in Western Australia have been cancelled due to the volcanic eruption in Chile.

Airlines Qantas, Virgin and Jetstar said the ash cloud was too low around Perth for aircraft to fly safely.

Winds have carried particles 5,600 miles (9,000km) from the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano range.

The eruption, which began on 4 June, has caused levels of flight disruption not seen since an Icelandic volcano paralysed Europe in 2010.

Experts monitoring the Puyehue volcano believe its eruption is likely to grow more violent in the coming days.

Previous eruptions in 1960 and in 1921 lasted for about two months.

Widespread disruption

In a mixed picture, the restrictions in Western Australia came as air travel in other parts of the country was getting back to normal.

Virgin said the ash was too low in the atmosphere to permit safe flights to and from Perth.

Lightning strikes over the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano in Chile

"The ash plume is forecast to be at a lower band level of approximately 15,000ft and with this in mind, Virgin Australia will suspend all services into and out of Perth as a precautionary measure," said Group Executive Sean Donohue in a statement.

Qantas and its subsidiary Jetstar followed suit shortly afterwards.

Qantas has again cancelled all flights to New Zealand and the southern island of Tasmania, as well as to the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires.

Meanwhile, flights to and from Adelaide were resumed by Qantas, Jetstar and Tiger on the fourth day of disruptions in Australia. Flights to and from Melbourne are also back to normal.

Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand have continued services to New Zealand and Tasmania by changing flight paths to avoid the ash cloud.

Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre forecaster Graham Weston told ABC radio that cold air from the south of Western Australia was pushing the ash towards Perth.

"It is drawing up some of that ash we do have in the Southern Ocean towards the south-west of the continent," said Mr Graham.

In South America some international flights resumed overnight from Argentina's main airport in Buenos Aires, but domestic flights are still affected.

On Tuesday there were no flights in or out of Buenos Aires.

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was forced to take a boat from Buenos Aires to Montevideo in Uruguay.

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