Several flights cancelled after New Zealand volcano eruption

The company announced Thursday morning that the presence of volcanic ash on flight paths forced Air New Zealand to cancel 10 flights.

A company spokesman later said flights were able to resume thanks to the dissipation of ash in the airspace.

Based on satellite imagery, “minor volcanic activity” began earlier in August, the GNS Science Research Institute said in a situation update.

A rash that can last for several months.

The institute warned that this event is part of the “typical eruption cycles” known on White Island, also called whakaari in Maori, and “this activity can last for some time, weeks or even months.”

Experts said residents of the country's main islands could breathe in volcanic gases and suffer mild eye and throat irritation.

New Zealand raised the volcano's alert level earlier in August to level three on a scale of five.

Access to White Island has been closed since the deadly 2019 eruption, a move that also affects the work of specialists, preventing them from carrying out repairs to monitoring systems and making it “difficult to put current activity into perspective” in the context of past volcanic events, according to volcanologist Simon Parker of Victoria University of Wellington.

Experts say volcanic ash is damaging aircraft engines. “Ash in volcanic plumes is a hazard to aircraft because it gets sucked into their engines, can clog fuel lines, stick to engine surfaces and corrode parts,” explains volcanologist Adrian Pettari of the University of Waikato.