Mexican airport suspends operations due to volcano

A handful of US flights were cancelled at two Mexican airports on Friday after ash from a nearby volcano fell in central Mexico, authorities said.

Alaska Airlines voluntarily cancelled a flight from Los Angeles to Mexico City's international airport and the later trip back to California, airport spokesman Jorge Gomez told AFP. The rest of the airport, however, was operating normally.

The small airport of the central city of Puebla, located just 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the Popocatepetl volcano, suspended its operations as a safety precaution "due to the abundant presence of ash," the transportation ministry said in a statement.

This forced the cancelation of six flights, including a United Airlines flights to Houston, Texas, an American Airlines trip to Dallas, Texas, and four domestic routes operated by Mexican carriers Volaris and Aeromexico, it said.

Two cargo flights were also affected, the ministry said, adding that clean up crews were deployed to pick up ash from the runway and roads.

The Popocatepetl volcano has been rumbling periodically since May, spewing huge columns of ash that prompted several US airlines to cancel dozens of flights into and out of Mexico City last week.

Last Saturday, authorities raised the alert level around the volcano to Yellow Phase III, one notch below evacuations of residents who live near the 5,452-meter-high (17,887-foot-high) "Popo," as it is locally known.

The Mexican capital is only 55 kilometres (35 miles) from the snow-capped volcano.

In its latest bulletin, the National Disaster Prevention Centre reported that the volcano had spewed steam and ash accompanied by medium intensity explosions early Friday that blew glowing rocks up to two kilometres (1.2 miles) from its crater.

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Volcanic ash is a pain in the butt for commercial aviation. It is highly damaging to jet engines and airlines will not want to risk flying in unsafe airspace. Flight cancellations will cause losses for them, but when safety is concerned, some profit will have to be compromised.