Travellers in limbo as flights cancelled

Zach Harper and other Indiana-bound wrestlers wait for news on a flight out yesterday. Photo / Greg Bowker

Airline flight schedules will be back to normal today after widespread cancellations yesterday, but experts warn the ash cloud from the Chilean volcano that caused all the problems could return in less than a week.

All New Zealand services on Qantas, Jetstar and Pacific Blue were cancelled yesterday, affecting more than 70 flights.

Air New Zealand was flying, but at a lower altitude. This uses up to 10 per cent more fuel but the extra cost would be less than cancelling flights and refunding passengers.

Many Qantas travellers were using their refunds to buy tickets on Air New Zealand. Most tickets for yesterday were sold out by early afternoon. Prices for last-minute tickets were high, with a one-way ticket to Sydney costing $569 and to Melbourne $672.

The cloud from the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano has affected each leg of the trip for a stranded United States wrestling team on a cultural exchange to New Zealand.

The 14 teenagers from Indiana were trapped in Los Angeles for 36 hours on June 11 thanks to the ash, missing one of their three scheduled competitions in New Zealand.

When their Qantas jet to Auckland finally took off, it was diverted to Sydney to avoid the ash plume.

"We woke up on Monday really thinking, 'All right, we're in New Zealand', and then we get off the plane and we're in Australia," said coach Zach Harper.

He said Qantas was "terrible" in Sydney, and after the teens had queued for three hours, he was told they would have to buy new tickets to get to Auckland. They finally arrived on June 14.

Yesterday, after the team had waited at Auckland Airport for two hours to fly home, Qantas told Mr Harper a flight would not be available until Sunday.

Springbok captain and Sharks team player John Smit tweeted: "Thankfully we landed safely in the land of the long white ash cloud! Training ran pretty well with a light drizzle to keep our engines cool!"

Friends Laura Fraser and Charlotte Billings of London were also grounded by a cancelled flight yesterday as they tried to get to South Africa to visit friends, but said they were not very disappointed. "New Zealand's quite cool," said Ms Billings.

"It would be better if we were stuck in Queenstown. We had to rush from Queenstown up here to get our flight."

The pair said they appreciated the updates from Qantas' Facebook page because it had been hard to reach the airline by phone.

Peter Lechner, of the Civil Aviation Authority, said he thought the ash was on its way out, but it was hard to say.

"I think it's unlikely that this will circulate around the globe again - this particular plume. It's just a matter of if there is new ash that comes out at a high level. We'll see in about six days. It may go all around again depending on the situation."

Dr Andrew Tupper, head of the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Darwin, thought the cancellations were unnecessary. He told the Australian he knew of "no documented evidence of engine damage caused by an ash cloud thousands of kilometres away from an eruption".

GNS Science volcanic geologist Dr Graham Leonard said there had been no major change at the volcano.

UP, UP AND AWAY

* Airline flight schedules are expected to be back to normal today.

* The ash cloud is likely to return.

* More than 10,000 passengers have been affected by the latest disruptions.