Hello everyone and welcome back to Simply Aviation. In today's newsletter, we will be talking about how volcanic ash created chaos in Mexico City!

If you had to travel during the weekend via plane to Mexico, chances are that you suffered some sort of disruption, either a delay, a detour, or a cancellation. This was due to an increase in the volcanic activity by Popocatepetl, a volcano located in the Mexican states of Puebla and Tlaxcala, not so far away from Mexico City.

The ashes forced authorities to shut down all operations at Mexico City International Airport (MEX) and Felipe Ángeles International Airport (NLU) on Saturday, creating a series of disruptions over the country which continued until Monday.

Impact across the Country

During the first hours of Saturday, Popocatepetl began launching volcanic ash into the sky. The winds at the time sent these ashes directly to Mexico City, forcing the authorities to halt operations at NLU and MEX between 04:25 and 10:00. Airlines such as Aeromexico, Volaris, Viva Aerobus, Arajet and more had to cancel or delay numerous flights.

On Monday, May 22, Mexico's protection agency released a statement saying it had been notified of 38 canceled and 44 delayed flights impacting over 11,504 passengers at MEX. At NLU, nine flights had been canceled and five delayed, affecting 1,988 passengers. Independently, Aeromexico informed through its website the impact on 427 flights over the weekend and Monday: 249 on Saturday, 132 on Sunday, and 46 on Monday.

What's happening now?

Today's the fifth day since Popocatepetl increased its volcanic activity. On the ground, Mexican authorities are keeping a close eye on the volcano, informing about evacuation plans for the towns close to the volcano and limiting public transport near the area. There are fewer canceled flights now after the winds took volcanic ash away from MEX and NLU. Nonetheless, there still is an impact.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States has released a volcano ash advisory for Popocatepetl. According to their analysis, the volcanic ash will be travelling to Mexico's eastern and southeastern regions.

This is forcing Mexican airlines to reroute their flights, avoiding the areas where the volcanic ash can found.

Every time a volcano erupts somewhere in the world, there is concern about the impact the ash will have on aviation. Another instance was the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, which brought all aviation in the North Atlantic to a standstill but the current eruption by Popocatepetl is far from creating this sort of chaos.

Thank you for reading this post from Simply Aviation and I look forward to seeing you again soon!