Ash stops flights, thousands affected

A swollen ash cloud from the Chilean volcano could disrupt travel at Australia's major airports for two days, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers.
All major airlines on Tuesday cancelled flights en masse as the ash cloud made its second pass into Australian airspace.
The disruptions will continue on Wednesday with the busiest hubs of Sydney and Melbourne again affected.
Virgin Australia cancelled 170 domestic flights on Tuesday, affecting 20,000 passengers.
Qantas cancelled more than 200 flights on Tuesday, also impacting about 20,000 travellers, and expected at least that number again on Wednesday.
Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said the cancellations would have a knock-on effect.
"Unfortunately it doesn't look like being the end," she told reporters in Canberra.
"We do expect upcoming delays over the next 24 to 48 hours."
Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said the cancellation of so many flights was "extremely rare" but passenger safety was paramount.
"Safety must be our first priority," he said.
Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said hundreds of thousands of passengers would be affected over Tuesday, Wednesday and potentially into Thursday.
The ash cloud this time is larger, about 2000km long, and its base level is about 20,000 feet.
"It just makes it impossible for airlines to be able to fly underneath it or around it, it's just too big essentially," Mr Gibson said.
Virgin Australia, which kept flying for much of last week while other airlines stopped services, joined Qantas in cancelling its Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra services.
"It's sitting quite low and we're not comfortable flying at those levels," Virgin spokeswoman Danielle Keighery told reporters in Sydney.
Qantas and Jetstar have also cancelled flights in and out of Hobart and New Zealand for most of Wednesday.
The ash cloud from Chile's Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano caused six days of disruptions last week as the plume made its way over Australian and New Zealand airspace.
The flight cancellations have come at a significant cost to travellers and the airlines, as well as industry.
Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive John Lee said it was costing the tourism sector more than $10 million a day.
"This is nearly the straw that will break the camel's back for this industry," Mr Lee said.
Tiger Airways cancelled all 60 domestic flights on Tuesday, affecting 9000 passengers, with some planning to camp out at Melbourne airport overnight.
The budget airline also cancelled Wednesday's morning flights.
Qantas' discount airline Jetstar cancelled Adelaide, Sydney (including trans-Tasman flights), Melbourne and Newcastle flights.
Head of the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, Andrew Tupper, said it was hoped that the latest ash cloud problems that began with Adelaide services being cancelled on Tuesday morning would only last for 48 hours in total.
Dr Tupper said the cloud was clearing South Australia and would reach Melbourne and Hobart on Tuesday night.
"It will be clearing from the mainland during the day tomorrow and it should be clear of Tasmania tomorrow night.
"So we're still looking at a short, sharp event."
Dr Tupper said the ash cloud had clearly dissipated since its first pass over Australia last week and that it was unlikely to return a third time.
At this stage Perth, Brisbane and Darwin were not affected although some Qantas flights between Melbourne and Perth have been impacted.