Volcanic Ash

14 June 2011

ETHIOPIAN Airlines has confirmed that as a result of the volcanic eruption in Eritrea on June 14, flights to northern Ethiopia, Khartoum and Djibouti are affected.

The airline is advising its passengers to contact the airline’s ticketing offices to check on the status of their flights, especially to the above-mentioned destinations.

It is believed that Volcano Dubbi erupted following a series of minor earthquakes.

Hailaye Gebretsadik, general manager of Ethiopia's Bole International Airport, reported that only one flight from Germany and an Emirates flight from Entebbe had been cancelled.

The France-based Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VACC) issued an official air traffic advisory predicting that the ash cloud was likely to reach Saudi Arabia and that “the ash plume will spread toward the Middle East and was expected to reach the skies over parts of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Israel, Jordan, Yemen and Iraq by June 14”.