Jetstar and Qantas said they had stopped flights to Bali on Wednesday for safety reasons because of volcanic ash, while plane tracking website Flightradar24 showed flights to the island by AirAsia and Virgin were also canceled.
Bali is Indonesia’s top tourist hotspot and is a popular destination for Australian visitors.
The first eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki on Nov. 3 in the East Nusa Tenggara province, about 800 km (497 miles) from Bali, killed at least nine people. It has since erupted repeatedly, including multiple times on Tuesday.
From Nov. 4 to Nov. 12, 80 flights in Bali were canceled, including from Singapore, Hong Kong, and several Australian cities, said Ahmad Syaugi Shahab, general manager of Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport.
Indonesia has close to 130 active volcanoes and sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an area of high seismic activity atop various tectonic plates. The ash column from Mount Lewotobi has reached as high as 10 km and authorities have said sand fall has covered surrounding areas.
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