1 Jun 2014

Ash lifting, flights expected to resume

2:34 pm on 1 June 2014

Flights to and from the top end of Australia are expected to resume later on Sunday as a large plume of volcanic ash clears.

The ash is from Mt Sangeang Api, on Sumbawa Island in Indonesia's south-east, which began erupting on Friday.

The ash cloud has been sweeping south towards Australia, with some flights between Australia and Bali affected and all flights in and out of Darwin cancelled.

However, all flights were expected to resume later on Sunday, the ABC reports.

Bureau of Meteorology volcanic ash expert Emil Janssens said there was a lot of ash in the upper atmosphere and the volcano was still erupting.

"There's an ongoing eruption at the volcano now, which is still producing ash affecting the Darwin area."

Air New Zealand said none of its Australian flights had been affected.