Whakaari ash plume cancels Tauranga flights as volcano at Alert Level 3

Volcanic activity on Whakaari – White Island. Photo / Geonet

By Felix Walton of RNZ

More than a dozen flights to and from Tauranga have been cancelled on Tuesday due to volcanic ash from Whakaari – White Island.

GeoNet has the volcano at Alert Level 3, denoting a minor volcanic eruption, and images show a plume of steam and ash reaching over a kilometre high.

Air New Zealand’s chief safety officer Nathan McGraw says 16 flights have been cancelled.

Customers will be rebooked on the next available service, he said.

Earth Sciences NZ volcanologist Michael Rosenberg said the steam and ash was normal activity and didn’t suggest a larger eruption.

“This is very typical of what we’ve seen intermittently over the past few decades,” he said.

“The fact that it’s looking pretty steady suggests that it’s a fairly open vent system, it’s not been blocked off and building up to something large.”

At least seven flights to Tauranga that were scheduled to depart from Auckland Airport had been marked as cancelled on the airport’s website.

It comes just a week after volcanic activity disrupted flights at Tauranga Airport.

Rosenberg said there had been a recent increase in volcanic activity, but it wasn’t any cause for concern.

“For the last few weeks we have seen a bit of a change, but the amount of ash coming out is really very small, and the plume of ash and steam and gas is rising to a kilometre, a kilometre and a half,” he said.

He said the volcanic activity was “very passive”.

“There’s not a lot of ash being carried in that plume, but it’s certainly disrupting air traffic in the Bay of Plenty region.

“We can’t say whether it’s going to lead to something larger, but we’re monitoring everything as closely as we can.”

– RNZ