Volcanoes

Well, a Chilean volcano has finally given Australia what we tried but spectacularly failed to achieve last summer. We have The Ashes.

In a spooky parallel to the Eyjafjallajokull eruption last year, the Puyehue volcano has erupted, wreaking havoc with air travel. Just as an aside, wouldn’t it be nice if a volcano we can all spell went haywire for a change?

For so many Australian travellers, the long weekend has been long for all the wrong reasons. If you’ve been stranded somewhere, or know someone who’s been stranded, tell us your story.

Continue reading "Ash Tuesday" »

Could Australian air travel be affected by a similar event to the volcanic eruption in Iceland which shut Europe’s skies? The short answer is yes.

While it’s unlikely domestic flights could be severely affected, beneath the aviation corridors linking Australia to Asia and Europe lies Indonesia, which has more active volcanoes than any other country. A cataclysmic eruption there would cause major disruption to international air traffic, and tourism and some trade as a result.

Darwin is home to one of nine global ash monitoring centres which track volcano activity and advise airlines on current risks around the world. The Bureau of Meteorology specialist who runs it, Dr Andrew Tupper, says it is “virtually impossible to fly in and out of Australia without going over volcanic activity”.

Continue reading "The volcanic ash threat to Australian flights" »