Several international airlines have cancelled flights to and from Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali as an ongoing volcanic eruption left travellers stranded at airports.
Tourists have been stuck at Bali’s airport since Tuesday after their flights were suddenly cancelled.
“The airline did not provide accommodation, leaving us stranded at this airport,” said Charlie Austin from Perth, Australia, who was on vacation in Bali with his family.
Another Australian tourist, Issabella Butler, opted to find another airline that could fly her home.
“The important thing is that we have to be able to get out of here,” she said.
At least nine people died following the eruption (AP)
Media reports said that thousands of people were stranded at airports in Indonesia and Australia.
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano on the remote island of Flores in East Nusa Tenggara province has spewed towering columns of hot ash high into the air since its initial huge eruption on November 4 killed nine people and injured dozens of others.
The 5,197ft volcano shot up ash at least 17 times on Tuesday, with the largest column recorded at five and a half miles high, the Centre for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation said.
The activity at the volcano has disturbed flights at Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai international airport since the eruption started, airport general manager Ahmad Syaugi Shahab said. Over the past four days, 84 flights, including 36 scheduled to depart and 48 due to arrive, were affected.
At least 26 domestic flights and 64 overseas ones were cancelled on Wednesday alone, including airlines from Singapore, Hong Kong, Qatar, India and Malaysia. For these cancellations, the airlines were offering travellers a refund, a reschedule or reroute.
Three other airports in neighbouring districts of Ende, Larantuka and Bajawa have been closed since Monday after Indonesia’s Air Navigation issued a safety warning because of volcanic ash.
Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes in the East Flores district of East Nusa Tenggara province, known locally as the husband-and-wife mountains.
“Laki laki” means man, while its mate is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman. It is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 280 million people.