Hundreds of Australians stay stranded in Bali or have had their holidays cancelled after a volcanic eruption close to the island created a harmful ash cloud.
On Thursday morning Qantas and Jetstar resumed some flights between Bali and Australia, and Virgin was flying all scheduled flights. All three airways had earlier cancelled flights to and from the island resulting from security considerations from the ash which had spewed 9km into the air.
Some travellers tried to change flights to Garuda Indonesia, which was nonetheless flying.
Amanda Mac, from Melbourne, arrived in Bali on Wednesday night together with her two daughters after their Jetstar flight on Tuesday was cancelled.
“We sat on the tarmac for a couple of hours, then the pilot announced it was cancelled,” Mac stated.
She stated she had initially re-booked with Jetstar, however then modified to Garuda Indonesia on Wednesday morning on the recommendation of somebody she met on the airport. Jetstar gave her a full refund, she stated.
Nonetheless that flight was additionally rescheduled for later within the day – it took two bookings, and three journeys to the airport, however Mac and household are actually on vacation to have a good time the twins’ 18th birthdays.
“I was so relieved,” she stated. “Definitely owe my new friend a few drinks for giving me the heads up about Garuda!”
She stated everybody on board had been excited to get off the bottom.
“Most of us had experienced one or more cancellations. I wasn’t worried about anything, I trust the airlines would have weighed up the risks.”
Different Australian travellers weren’t so lucky.
One lady stated in a Fb publish that she had misplaced over $2,000 from flight cancellations and unrecoverable bookings.
Gardua Indonesia was contacted for remark.
The emergency started on Sunday when Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano erupted, spewing an ash column 9km excessive.
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The occasion in East Nusa Tenggara province, about 500km from Bali, killed 9 individuals and prompted the evacuation of greater than 15,000 near the crater.
On Tuesday, Qantas and Virgin Airways cancelled as much as 10 journeys in whole, in accordance with their web sites.
On Thursday morning, Qantas stated in a press assertion that situations had improved sufficient to renew Jetstar and Qantas flights between Australia and Denpasar.
“We will continue to monitor the changing conditions and volcanic activity and work on plans to operate more recovery flights,” the assertion stated.
“We are contacting customers directly to notify them of any changes to their travel plans. We appreciate the changing situation is frustrating and we thank customers for their understanding and patience.”
A Virgin spokesperson stated on Thursday it was resuming all scheduled flights out and in of Denpasar.
“We will continue to contact guests whose flights have been cancelled to accommodate them on recovery flights in the coming days,” they stated.
– With AAP.
