Airlines cancelled flights to the Indonesian cities of Solo and Yogyakarta yesterday because of the thick smoke spewing from the Merapi volcano.
SilkAir, Garuda Indonesia and Air Asia cancelled a total of six flights.
Officials cited poor visibility and heavy ash on the runways of the two airports.SilkAir said that, while its next flight to Solo is not until Thursday, it is monitoring the situation.In an email reply to MediaCorp queries, a volcano expert with the Earth Observatory of Singapore at the Nanyang Technological University, Professor Chris Newhall, said it is still an open question whether Merapi will continue to spew ash clouds.But he said Merapi is very different from the Icelandic volcano which erupted in April, causing the cancellation of flights all over Europe.Prof Newhall said Merapi is very unlikely to produce as much ash as the Icelandic volcano.He added that it would be highly unlikely for Merapi to cause more than the Yogyakarta and Solo airports to close, and even then, it is unlikely that the closure will be prolonged.Mount Merapi had its first big eruption on Oct 26 and nearly 40 people have been killed since then.