Chilean ash cloud grounds flights for second day

A cloud of ash from an erupting volcano in Chile disrupted air travel in New Zealand and Australia for a second day on Monday, causing scores of flights to be cancelled and grounding thousands of travellers.

Flights between New Zealand and Australia, and some domestic routes in both countries, were disrupted as the cloud, which has travelled around 10,000km across the Atlantic and Indian oceans, drifted over their Southern air space.

Air New Zealand kept in the air by rerouting flights and flying at lower altitudes to avoid the ash, but was monitoring developments closely. "We may well be affected later on today and tomorrow because if we can't exit or operate across the Tasman (Sea) and get to 6,090m before we enter into controlled air space then we will have issues in the next few days," said Air NZ chief pilot David Morgan.

Source: Relaxnews