Flights to Bali and Lombok Canceled After Mount Agung Eruption
Jakarta. The eruptions of Mount Agung in Bali that started on Saturday morning (25/11) made several airlines cancel their flights to Bali and Lombok, officials said on Sunday.
Ngurah Rai International Airport spokesman Ari Ahsan said 15 overseas flights, mostly to Australia, and one domestic flight were cancelled on Saturday.
"Today, there are 13 flight cancellations, 11 of them due to the volcano and two more because of technical problems," Ari told the Jakarta Globe, adding that the airport is still operating.
Meanwhile, flag carrier Garuda Indonesia on Sunday canceled 18 domestic flights from and to the international airport in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, due to Mount Agung's activity.
"With the potential spreading of Mount Agung's volcanic ashes, 18 flights of Garuda Indonesia, from and to Lombok, are canceled," Garuda Indonesia acting corporate secretary Hengki Heriandono said in a statement.
Bali's Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation, or VONA, alert code has been changed to red, the highest, as Mount Agung started to release ash into the atmosphere.
All activity is forbidden within a 7.5-kilometer radius of the crater.
National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Nugroho said on Sunday the ash cloud is 4,000 meters above the volcano's crater, and is moving eastwards at a speed of 18 kilometers per hour, in the direction of Lombok.
However, no significant seismic activities have been recorded after the eruptions.
Sutopo said volcanic ashfall has been reoirted in eight villages in Bali and in Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara.
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