Flight Operations Resume At Bali International Airport!
Flight operations at Bali’s international airport have resumed after the Indonesian government shut down the airport due to a volcanic eruption at Mount Agung.
Government authorities had announced that the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali would be closed from 3 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday. However, a favourable change in the wind direction allowed the airport to resume flights by 2:30 p.m.
Shutting down of Bali Airport led to cancellation of almost 450 flights including 207 international ones. This affected 75000 air travellers globally.
Amongst these stranded travellers , there were a few Indians as well. The Consulate General Of India(CGI), Bali, had set up a help desk at the airport to assist Indian nationals.
According to a report, there was a group of 10 Indians holidaying in Indonesia and one of their relatives tweeted to CGI asking for help. CGI responded to the appeal and told him that the Bali airport had reopened at 2.30 p.m. and that his relatives should contact the airline to reschedule their flights.
Indonesian authorities have said that the airport was safe from the volcano since it’s about 60 -70 kms away. But, due to the ash clouds rising almost 16454 feet above sea level, they had to shut down flight operations.
Air Asia had cancelled almost 50 flights, while airlines such as Qantas Airways, Singapore Airlines and PT Garuda had to temporarily shut their operations down in Bali.
Last year in November, the airport was shut down for more than a day because of high volcanic activity in the region. This led to a loss of more than $1 billion for the country’s tourism industry.
The government has suspended all tourist activity near Mount Agung and everyone within a vicinity of 4 kms from the mountain has evacuated the area.