NATIONAL carrier Solomon Airlines is cancelling its scheduled international flights from Honiara to Brisbane today and from Brisbane to Santo and Port Vila, Vanuatu tomorrow.
This is due to risks associated with the adverse weather condition brought about by Tropical Cyclone (TC) Alfred which formed out of Solomon Islands last week.
Airbus A320 normally operates the services for these two routes.
Brisbane and the surrounding areas in Queensland and New South Wales states are bracing for the worst when TC Alfred makes landfall tomorrow.
In a statement issued late Tuesday Solomon Airlines said, following their cyclone Alfred Emergency Response Planning meeting, they are calling off the following flights due to the approaching cyclone and expected extreme weather conditions.
This means flights for today – Wednesday, 5 March – IE700 Honiara to Brisbane and tomorrow – Thursday, 6 March – IE726 Brisbane to Santo to Port Vila are now being put on hold until later this week.
This is due to safety reasons, the statement explained.
“For the safety of our passengers and crew, our aircraft will remain in Honiara on Wednesday night due to the risk, with anticipated strong winds ahead of the cyclone crossing land on Thursday.
The Airlines had offered alternate travel options for passengers who will miss the flights.
Alternative Travel Arrangements:
– Wednesday IE700 (HIR-BNE) passengers will be able to date change, with the next available options on Friday (IE700) and Sunday (IE707)
– Thursday IE726 (BNE-SON-VLI) passengers have the option to travel on:
Wednesday, 5 March – Brisbane to Honiara (IE701)
Thursday, 6 March – Honiara to Santo to Port Vila (IE722 – newly created flight)
“As we prepare for this event outside our control, we appreciate your understanding and patience as our team works to update bookings,” the statement said.
For the first time in 50 years, a cyclone is making a landfall to the Queensland region affecting all services.
According to news.com.au online it reports that Cyclone Alfred is rapidly approaching Australia’s east coast and millions of people – with some of its effects set to be felt from today, forecasters have warned.
The cyclone could bring more than half a metre of rain in some places. As an example of the magnitude of the storm, there is also now a weather warning in place for almost 1000km of the coast.
“This is a really significant event,” said the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BOM) Angus Hines late on Tuesday.
“The main hazards we are expecting are heavy rain and flooding for large areas of Queensland and New South Wales, damaging to destructive winds as well as storm surge and coastal inundation”.
Thousands are at risk from flooding, it was reported.
Due to it hitting an area of high pressure, Alfred has now made its swerve and has switched from heading north to south, parallel to the coast, to now heading west putting it on a collision course with Brisbane.
As of 4am this morning [Wednesday], the cyclone was at category 2 strength, 465km east of Brisbane and 430km from the Gold Coast.
The BOM has said there is a warning zone from Double Island Point in Queensland to north of Grafton in New South Wales, including Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Byron Bay and Ballina.
It is likely to remain at category 2 as it approaches the coast.
BOM meteorologist Jonathon How said it would make landfall anytime from late Thursday into Friday.
“The location of landfall will be critical because we are expecting to see the worst of the impacts, or most significant impacts, on the southern flank of the cyclone.
“That does include places like Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and also the Northern Rivers.”
The BOM’s Mr Hines added that the impacts of Alfred were already being felt.
“As Alfred approaches the country, it’s estimated the winds rolling around it at the moment are somewhere around 100km/h, gusting up towards 150km/h.
“Rain will build across the east of the country on Wednesday, but the heavy falls are really expected to arrive on Thursday, with the potential for locally intense falls near and south of Alfred’s crossing point
“Many rivers are likely to reach their flood thresholds, and we could see a number of rivers reach major flood thresholds through both Queensland and NSW,” he said.
Brisbane City Council has put in place flood modelling from Cyclone Alfred which has revealed as many as 20,000 properties could be at risk from inundation, reported the Courier Mail.
In the Gold Coast that figure is 6000 properties.
The BOM has said warned tides could be higher in cyclone affected areas. That could mean Brisbane sees a high water mark of 2.21 metres following Alfred.
Lower lying areas close to waterways could be particularly at risk, Brisbane City Council has said.
