Flights to and from Bali, including several involving Singapore, were cancelled yesterday due to a new volcanic ash cloud from Mount Rinjani in Lombok, Indonesia's second-highest volcano that is active.

The ash forced the Indonesian authorities to issue an order to close the Ngurah Rai International Airport on Bali for four hours until 11.30pm, temporarily grounding all flights to the popular holiday island.

Three Bali-bound flights from Changi Airport - two from Jetstar and one from Emirates - were cancelled yesterday. Two flights from Bali to Singapore - one from Jetstar and another from KLM - were cancelled as well.

The other scheduled flights experienced delays of between 15 minutes and four hours.

For instance, a SilkAir flight due to arrive in Singapore from Bali at 1.05pm yesterday landed at 3.07pm, two hours behind schedule, while a Singapore Airlines flight to Bali was due to leave Changi Airport at 8.20am, but did so only at 10am.