Australian airports in chaos over ash cloud

Our airport car parking team reports on the recent disruption to Australia’s travel industry as a fresh wave of ash from Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon causes the country’s main airports to close.

According to information which has reached our airport car parking team, it’s being predicted that flights both in and out of Sydney and Melbourne Airport will be disrupted for at least another 24hrs, possibly longer.

The first bout of disruptions arising from the Chilean ash cloud happened earlier on this month and left thousands of passengers stranded. Now the ash cloud is back it seems, leaving more chaos in its wake for Australian passengers.

Olivia North, a representative of Australia’s flagship airline Quantas, is predicting that in excess of 200 flights will be cancelled on Wednesday alone, stating that, “the experts say we simply will not be able to operate in this situation”.

ABC news, meanwhile, is currently reporting that Brisbane Airport is having to accept the inbound flights that would have landed at Sydney.

The impact of the current ash cloud on tourism in Australia cannot be underestimated. In a continent besieged by natural disasters as of late, this is yet another blow to their already hard-hit tourist industry.

Australia’s National Tourism and Transport Forum has estimated that the industry is losing over $10 AUD per day – an effect which is comparable to the Icelandic ash cloud that hit Europe back in April 2010.

Despite industry losses, safety remains of paramount importance to the vast majority of airline passengers. For this reason many Australians are forgiving of the recent inconvenience and chaos.