All flights to and from Cape Town suspended due to volcano

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Ash grounds SAA flights
Sat, 18 Jun 2011 7:25

All South African Airways (SAA) flights to and from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London were suspended on Saturday evening due to ash clouds caused by a volcano in Chile, the airline said on Saturday afternoon.

Flights departing Cape Town after 17h45, Port Elizabeth from 17h15 and East London from 17h05 onwards were suspended due to ash clouds. Travellers were advised not to go to the airports, as all flights were suspended, SAA said in a statement.

The Cape Town to London flight SA220, which was scheduled for departure on Saturday night would leave on Sunday at 8am as flight as SA9220.

All affected flights would be closed for sale for Saturday evening. SAA said that the situation would be monitored and customers would be advised accordingly.

According to the Airports Company South Africa website on Saturday evening, the cancellations also affected BA/Comair flights, although scheduled services on some budget airlines appeared to be operating.

Chile's Puyehue volcano rumbled to life on 11 June for the first time since 1960. Winds spread a cloud of volcanic ash across much of southern Argentina, as well as into Uruguay and southern Brazil. High-altitude jet streams also carried the ash as far afield as Australia and New Zealand, where it caused considerable disruption to air travel this week.