Flights from Australia disrupted again

Manila Bulletin
June 22, 2011, 2:14am

MELBOURNE, June 21 (Reuters) – An ash cloud from a volcano in Chile wreaked havoc on Australian flights again on Tuesday, with Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia cancelling domestic flights in and out of Sydney and other key cities from Tuesday afternoon.

International flights were mostly operating but some flights were being diverted, delayed, or cancelled, Qantas said.

Qantas diverted flights from Johannesburg and Singapore to Brisbane, and delayed two flights due from Los Angeles, and cancelled six flights between Australia and New Zealand, the airline said, while Sydney Airport said flights to Honolulu and Bali had also been cancelled.

Qantas also moved forward two flights to London and one to Frankfurt to get them out before 3 pm (0500 GMT), another spokesman said.

Qantas and Virgin Australia cancelled all flights to and from Adelaide all day on Tuesday, while both airlines stopped flights to and from Canberra from around midday.

Virgin said it was suspending all services out of Melbourne from 4 pm, while Qantas cancelled flights between Perth and Melbourne.