Ash clears in Perth and Tasmania but NZ flights still affected

The ash began to dissipate late last night, with many operators resuming some services from first thing this morning. It will take some hours for full services to resume.

The ash cloud is not expected to impact on any other Australian mainland capital cities within the next 24 hours.

The ash that had been affecting services in Tasmania since the weekend has also cleared, with most flights also expected to resume today.

Services to and from NZ are still experiencing widespread delays as a heavy blanket of ash covers the South Island.

Airservices National Operations Centre in Canberra, together with meteorologists and the Bureau of Meteorologys Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) in Darwin, have been monitoring the movement of the ash plume eastwards for more than a week.

The ash plume resulted from the eruption of Cordón Caulle in Southern Chile on 4 June. The initial eruption was estimated to reach a height of 50,000ft (15 km), with eruptions still continuing to 30,000ft (9 km).

It is not unprecedented for a volcanic ash cloud to circumnavigate the globe. For example, in 1991 the volcano Cerro Hudson in Chile erupted and ash was transported twice around the world in two weeks, and was observed over south-east Australia a few days after the eruption.

Travellers are advised to contact airlines for more specific and up to date information.

For more information:
Bureau of Meteorology VAAC: link
Airservices Australia network status update: link
For audio and visual grabs or imagery of Airservices National Operations Centre, click here and follow the links to media registration.