The ongoing eruption of Raung* (see below) in Indonesia is beginning to become a travel headache across the region surrounding the volcano. Ash from the explosions have now caused multiple airports across Indonesia to close, including in some of the popular tourist area of Bali. The eruptions so far at Raung have been fairly small, so these closures must be especially troubling to tourist destinations as this sort of activity can be prolonged at volcanoes like those found in Indonesia—just look at the years of explosions at Sinabung. However, when it comes to modern air travel and volcanic ash, it is best to play it safe to prevent a potential disaster.
The most famous air travel disruption from volcanic ash is the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, where a strong eruption in Iceland closed airspace over Europe over almost a week. This was an unprecedented closure of airspace due to ash and a major reason for this closure was that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had little idea of the concentration of the ash across much of Europe at different flight levels. However, it was clear that ash was in the atmosphere and even in low concentrations (too low to seen by pilots), extensive damage can happen to jet engines as it sucks in the ash. It was the right decision based on the threat that the ash posed to aircraft, although many airlines were infuriated by EASA’s response.
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