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Chile volcano: Qantas cancels Melbourne flights

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Qantas has cancelled all its flights in and out of Melbourne, Australia, because of ash drifting over the Pacific Ocean from a volcano in Chile.

 

Qantas had already cancelled flights to and from Tasmania and parts of New Zealand. Other airlines have also grounded flights in the region, stranding thousands of travellers.

 

Australian airline Qantas said it was too dangerous to fly through the ash.

 

The Puyehue-Cordon-Caulle volcano has been erupting for more than a week.

 

Strong winds have carried the fine particles of ash from the volcano to southern New Zealand and Australia at between 6,000 and 10,600m (20,000 and 35,000ft).

 

The particles have the potential to seriously damage jet engines.

 

Ash cloud spreading

Qantas said all its flights to and from Melbourne and Auckland, New Zealand, were being grounded from Sunday evening local time.

 

All its flights in and out of Tasmania and the New Zealand cities of Christchurch, Queenstown and Wellington have already been cancelled.

 

Qantas said about 8,000 passengers would be affected by its cancellations.

 

 

The volcanic ash is drifting at altitudes of up to 10,600m (35,000ft)

Virgin Australia said it was cancelling 34 domestic flights and one international flight from Melbourne on Sunday.

 

Budget carrier Jetstar has also cancelled flights within New Zealand and flights from New Zealand to Australia and from Tasmania to the rest of Australia.

 

Passengers at Tasmania's Hobart airport told ABC news they might be stuck on the island for several days. Ferries from Tasmania to Australia's mainland are booked up for at least two days.

 

Air New Zealand said it had not cancelled any flights, but was adjusting flight paths to steer aircraft below the ash.

 

New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority warned that the ash was expected to be detected at the cruising level of aircraft but had not yet been seen below 20,000ft.

 

"Given that the volcanic activity is continuing, it is expected that New Zealand airspace may be affected by these plumes for at least a week," it said in a statement.

 

The volcano has already caused severe disruption to flights in South America, with planes grounded for several days in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

 

It is the first serious eruption of the volcano chain since 1960, when the area was hit by a massive earthquake.

 

Thousands of people are living in temporary shelters after being evacuated from the area around the volcano.

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No news from MH and D7 to cancel the flight to MEL and CHC? I'm travelling there by this end of Aug, hopefully the volcano ashes would leave those places some peace by then...

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Isn't it amazing that when the volcano at the top end of the world in Iceland went silent, the one down south decides to have its own fun.

 

Both with similarly disruptive effects on aviation. Somehow other volcanic eruptions in between the top and bottom end of the world don't seem this disruptive ... or has the aviation industry become more nervous?

 

According to Channelnewsasia, flights to Melbourne by Qatar Airways, Emirates, Etihad and Singapore Airlines and some others continue unaffected except for a different routing and flying at a lower level.

 

Discussions elsewhere seem to suggest that the ash cloud had actually gone round the other way via the South Atlantic, across the southern end of the Indian Ocean before reaching Australia and if this goes on, it might just get back to where it came from - South America! You can imagine the ash cloud chanting "Around the world in 80 days ... or hours".

 

Glad I am not travelling in the Southern Hemisphere now ... but our carpark aunty Kwek is in Melbourne.

 

KC Sim

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Flying at lower level requires longer distance and therefore more time and more fuel. Still, it's better to fly to please the passengers rather then cancelling the flights and stranding thousands of passengers. :)

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i was on board MH202 from EZE last sunday...ETD was re-time from 2330 HRS to 2130 HRS due to EZE to be close at 2300 HRS 12th June 2011...the flight was totally full since there are some pax from other airlines that cancelled join us too

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The OH and myself were in Perth to take advantage of the Queen's Birthday long weekend. We were booked to leave on Monday evening. Had we been scheduled to leave PER a day earlier, we'd have been caught up in this as all airlines cancelled all their scheduled flights in and out of MEL on Sunday evening. We were booked on DJ which resumed their flights yesterday morning. QF resumed some flights whilst TT flights remained cancelled.

 

We left on the Monday evening redeye which was packed to the rafters, as we were also carrying refugees from the cancelled DJ flights. The flight was unfortunately overbooked, and after noticing a discrepancy in the pax manifest, they had to bump a pax off at the last minute (he was NOT happy!). There's a massive backlog and some people have reported that they might be waiting for a couple more days to get on a flight. DJ flight ops had plotted a routing that avoided the ash cloud which added 35 mins to our flight time.

 

Flights to/from Tasmania remain suspended. The OH has a co-worker in Tas who's currently enjoying his really long weekend there. :p (unless he's super excited about going back to work and has made arrangements to drive up to Davenport, and hop on to the Spirit of Tasmania across the Bass Straits).

Edited by Keith T

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.....The OH has a co-worker in Tas who's currently enjoying his really long weekend there

It's refreshing to note that it's not necessarily always all doom and gloom that mother nature spews upon us :p

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Qantas cuts growth forecast as more flights hit by ash

 

 

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Volcanic ash will add to problems for Qantas, says Siva Govindasamy of FlightglobalContinue reading the main story

Related Stories

 

Chile ash cloud causes disruption

Qantas cancels flights over ash

Qantas airlines has cut its forecast for domestic growth as it faces various problems including the continuing disruption due to volcanic ash.

 

Australia's national carrier said it expected domestic capacity to grow by just 5.5% this year compared with the previous estimate of 8% growth.

 

Qantas cancelled all flights in and out of Perth as ash from the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano in Chile spread further.

 

It has already suspended flights to and from Tasmania and New Zealand.

 

Flooding and cyclones earlier this year hit travel demand in Australia and the situation has been worsened by the current travel disruption.

 

'Capacity to demand'

Qantas said it was reducing its capital expenditure by 400m Australian dollars ($426m; £260m) as growth had been slower than expected.

 

The company said it was also cancelling or deferring orders of 12 narrow-body aircraft.

 

"The Qantas Group has always taken decisive action to match capacity to demand," said Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce.

 

"With Qantas continuing to lead the premium market and Jetstar offering consistently low fares in the leisure market, we are well-placed to retain our profit-maximising 65% domestic market share," he added.

 

It's getting real near, now at Perth... could it be soon to Indonesia?

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Mt Puyehue-Cordon Caulle Volcano Eruption

Update 2200hrs (GMT+8), Monday 13th June 2011

 

We understand that for now, the ash cloud from the eruption of the Mt Puyehue-Cordon Caulle Volcano in Chile, have reached parts of New Zealand airspace.

However please be informed that our flights to/from New Zealand and Australia are operating as per schedule.

 

We are currently monitoring the situation very closely. We request that our guests check our website for further updates.

 

Update from AirAsia

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I am under assumption that Air New Zealand and Air Asia X are changing their flight path to keep to their schedule. Its better than cancelling that many flights: reimbursement, hotels and food and beverages expenses.

 

It is a bad year for Qantas and Air New Zealand. Qantas has been battered by Queensland flood, Japan earthquake and tsunami and now this. No wonder they are laying off staff and cancelling/ deferring orders. We won't be surprised if their profit takes a dive this year. Poor Qantas~~ :sorry: :sorry:

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