Ash grounds major airlines

GOLD Coast Airport stayed opened overnight on Sunday to accommodate passengers whose flights were cancelled because of a volcanic ash cloud.

An airport spokeswoman said about 30 passengers spent the night at the airport after flights to Melbourne, Tasmania and New Zealand were cancelled due to volcanic ash about 10km above southern Australia and across the Tasman Sea.

The ash was from Chile's Puyehue Volcano, which erupted last week.

“We usually close the airport, but we stayed open because we had passengers stranded,” the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said airlines had warned passengers about the cancellations, but there was still a lot of people who turned up to the airport.

“It was a very busy day at the airport yesterday (Sunday),” she said.

The Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre supervising meteorologist Gordon Jackson said there was a large cloud above Melbourne on Sunday, but the main volcanic cloud had missed Australia.

“The bigger cloud was above New Zealand,” Mr Jackson said yesterday.

“There is an ash cloud 10km above Melbourne at this stage (Monday morning).

“The cloud is moving westward and it will be clearing in the next 12 to 18 hours.

“It may affect Adelaide in the next 18 hours.”

Mr Jackson said the cloud would break up, but the centre was unsure when.

Virgin Blue was the first of the major carriers to resume flights to Melbourne from Gold Coast, at about 7am yesterday.

Jetstar resumed flights to Melbourne at 1pm, but cancelled all flights to and from Tasmania and New Zealand yesterday.