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Bali airport closes as ash spews from volcano

Indonesia again closed the global airport on the resort island of Bali on Wednesday as Mount Barujari on a nearby island erupted, an official said. “Armenpress” reports about this, citing ibtimes.com website.

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“On 3rd November, Emirates flight EK398 from Dubai to Bali was diverted to Jakarta (CGK) due to the closure of the airport in Bali”, an Emirates spokesperson said.

The airport said it will continue to monitor the movement of volcanic ash, and assess the impact on airlines’ operations, ground handling, immigration, customs and dealing with passengers affected.

She said she expected Denpasar Airport to be open tomorrow and was hoping to be on an early-morning flight.

The USGS says that ash falling on airports will affect runways, taxiways, buildings, ground services, electrical utilities, communications, and parked airplanes. The country’s meteorology agency claims there is still a high risk of continued eruption, and has been monitoring tremors coming from the volcano.

Australian airlines Virgin Australia and Jetstar had already cancelled all flights Tuesday, deeming conditions unsafe for flying, with Virgin also scrapping its roster for Wednesday.

At the time, Chris Davies from the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Darwin in Australia’s north told the BBC it does not take much ash to interfere with flights.

Mount Rinjani on the nearby island of Lombok has been spewing ash since last weekend. Rinjani is among about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia.

Thousands of passengers were stranded on Bali in July because of volcanic eruptions at Mount Raung in East Java.

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AP describes the scene at Bali’s airport, saying “many travelers complained about a lack of information about their delayed flights and a few were sleeping on benches inside terminals”.

Volcanic ash is seen during an eruption inside the crater of Mount Rinjani on the Indonesian island of Lombok on Oct. 25 in this