Singapore-Jakarta flights cancelled

Singapore-Jakarta flights cancelled due to volcano

Several major airlines, including Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, AirAsia, Valuair and Tiger Airways, cancelled their flights between Singapore and Jakarta on Saturday, citing volcanic ash from Mount Merapi.

Changi Airport Group said 11 out of 35 flights to the Indonesian capital were cancelled.

Volcanic ash can affect flight visibility and cause an aircraft's engine to fail.

Jakarta lies some 430 kilometres away from the volcano in central Java.

But with the adverse movements of the ash clouds, Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it was in the interest of safety that its flights were cancelled on Saturday.

SIA's vice-president for public affairs, Nicholas Ionides, said: "We've been monitoring the situation very closely. The decision was taken at about 3 o'clock to cancel all subsequent flights for the day. There were four outbound flights from Singapore and four return flights from Jakarta.

"That was a precautionary measure based on the information that we had from the volcanic ash advisory centre in Darwin...the latest was that the ash cloud was moving in a manner that made it prudent for us to cancel those flights."

Some passengers were unhappy over the flight cancellation.

An affected passenger said: "I have come here to see the doctors. And today I have (to go back) to continue my medical treatment in Indonesia. So I really hope it (the flight) would not be cancelled. And they haven't decided any compensation for us, or new arrangements, because they are still waiting for the news from Jakarta."

But another affected passenger said: "It's pretty good that they are not taking the risk to fly to Jakarta."

Still, there were those who still insisted on making their way to the Indonesian capital.

They turned to Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air to fly to Jakarta.

SIA has also cancelled flights scheduled for Sunday.

The flights affected are:

SQ952, Singapore-Jakarta, scheduled to depart at 0740 hours;

SQ956, Singapore-Jakarta, scheduled to depart at 0930 hours;

SQ951, Jakarta-Singapore, scheduled to depart at 0615 hours;

SQ953, Jakarta-Singapore, scheduled to depart at 0920 hours; and

SQ957, Jakarta-Singapore, scheduled to depart at 1140 hours.

Singapore Airlines said it will waive cancellation/change fees for confirmed tickets to and from Jakarta issued on or before 6 November 2010 for travel between 6 November and 13 November 2010.

-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-