SINGAPORE: Budget airline Scoot on Thursday (Apr 18) cancelled a total of six flights between Singapore and East Malaysia as well as Indonesia following multiple eruptions of Mount Ruang.
The volcano in Indonesia started erupting on Tuesday evening, pushing an ash column more than 1.5km into the sky, prompting local authorities to evacuate thousands and shut the nearest international airport in Manado city on Sulawesi island.
Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines (SIA), said the cancellations were a precautionary measure.
It cancelled two flights scheduled to depart on Friday – TR216 and TR 217. The flights were between Singapore and the Indonesian city of Manado.
It also earlier cancelled four flights between Singapore and East Malaysia on Thursday.
TR490 and TR491 were supposed to fly between Singapore and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah while TR414 and TR415 were scheduled to fly between Singapore and Sarawak’s Miri.
“Scoot is assisting to reaccommodate affected customers onto subsequent flights, where available,” said the airline.
“Alternatively, affected customers may also request for a full refund if they choose not to continue with their travel.”
Other airlines in the region were also affected.
For instance, Malaysia Airlines said on Facebook that nearly 20 flights between Kuala Lumpur, Sabah and Sarawak on Thursday were cancelled.
For budget airline AirAsia, flights to and from nine airports including Kota Kinabalu, Miri, Kuching and Brunei were cancelled, the airline said in a news release on Thursday.
