Flights disrupted at Buenos Airways airport due to volcano

Volcanic ash was to blame for fresh flight disruptions at Buenos Aires airports on Sunday.

Travel Insurance News - 17/10/2011

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Routes to and from Jorge Newbery, one of South America’s biggest gateways, were halted after the Puyehue volcano in Chile spewed ash thousands of feet into the atmosphere late on Saturday.

Juan Pablo Schiavi, the Transport Secretary said that the facility was waiting for the ash cloud to pass before services could resume. But despite the closing of Newbery airport, which hosts both domestic and international routes, Buenos Aires’ other airport -Ezeiza- continued to see international arrivals and departures on Sunday.

The event is a sombre one for the tourist industry in the region, as ski resorts such as Argentina’s Bariloche, which sits just 60 miles (100kms) from Puyehue, were hoping for strong attendance over the winter months.

The news marks yet another extension to an already difficult year for air travel in the Southern Hemisphere thanks to the high Andean volcano, which in June wreaked havoc on flights as far away as New Zealand and Australia. Likewise, numerous airports across Argentina, Chile and Uruguay have been totally shut more than once in the past six months because of the volcano.

Volcanic ash poses a potential risk to aircraft, experts say, as particles can turn into glass at extreme temperatures and can result in engine failures.

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