Alaska Airlines cancels 41 flights over volcanic ash

Mon Aug 11, 2008 4:36am EDT

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Alaska Airlines canceled 41 flights by early Monday because of a towering plume of ash created by the eruption of a volcano last week, the airline said.

The cancellations began Sunday evening and affected flights between Alaska and Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, British Colombia, the airline said in a statement.

The ash cloud was created by the eruption of Kasatochi volcano in the Aleutian Islands on Thursday.

"If there's an ash plume in the way, we won't fly," Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Caroline Boren told the Anchorage Daily News.

The airline issued a travel advisory on its Web site that said volcanic ash cloud could affect Anchorage, Fairbanks and southeastern Alaska destinations through Aug. 17.

Alaska Airlines canceled the flights after the National Weather Service issued a warning Sunday for an area in Southeast Alaska near the panhandle, Boren told the Anchorage daily.

Kristi Wallace, a research geologist for the Alaska Volcano Observatory, told the newspaper the wind sheared off part of a 40,000-foot ash plume and carried it northeast from the North Pacific.

The airline said it hoped to resume flights later on Monday.

"These decisions are guided by our commitment to safety, and we are making every effort to re-accommodate passengers whose flight schedules have been disrupted," said Glenn Johnson, executive vice president of airports, maintenance and engineering.