Pavlof Volcano shoots ash on May 16. (Courtesy of Theo Chesley)

Passenger and cargo airlines in southwest Alaska have been watching Pavlof Volcano closely, trying to determine whether it’s safe to fly past the peak. PenAir restarted service throughout the state today, adding extra flights to Unalaska to relieve a backlog of passengers. But as KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal reports, the outlook from here is mixed.

As Pavlof heads into its second week of eruptions, it’s been getting harder to tell just what’s going on at the volcano.

Rick Wessels is a geophysicist for the Alaska Volcano Observatory. His best guess is, more of the same.

Wessels: "We’re assuming that it’s still erupting, still putting out a low-level ash plume like it’s been doing. Unfortunately, with the cloudy weather, we haven’t been able to look at the plume or the volcano itself over the past 24 hours or so."

One thing is certain: Volcanic ash is bad for airplanes. Ash can scratch up sensitive equipment -– and if it gets into a plane engine, it has to be painstakingly cleaned out to prevent damage.

Knowing that, PenAir and Grant Aviation have both been leery of flying in southwest Alaska this week.

PenAir grounded its Alaska fleet on Monday, and then sent a few flights to Dillingham, King Salmon, Unalakleet, and McGrath on Tuesday.

Bryan Carricaburu, PenAir’s head of operations, said he hoped to continue restoring service today.

Carricaburu: "Possibly, we’ll be able to get airplanes past King Salmon, down towards Sand Point, Cold Bay, and Dutch."

But getting out to the Aleutians is a little more complicated – because of ash, and also because of bad weather:

Carricaburu: "You can imagine that ash going up, and then you have a big low pressure [system] going around in a circle. It’s like a big mixing bowl. It kind of takes that ash and disperses it all around. And that’s kind of what we’ve got now, right up over the whole Bering Sea. That’s why we’re being so cautious."

Grant Aviation has had to delay and cancel flights in the Aleutians and around Bristol Bay, too. Owner Woody Richardson says Grant is trying to consider each flight individually, canceling on a case-by-case basis instead of shutting down whole routes.

The charter flights Grant usually runs between Anchorage to Unalaska are a different story. They’re pretty much on hold, until ash clears up past King Salmon and Dillingham.

That’s bad news for stranded travelers, looking for an alternative to regular passenger service on PenAir. As of Tuesday afternoon, PenAir had 314 passengers waiting in Anchorage to travel on to southwest Alaska.

Molly Shae is one of them. She was on vacation in Mexico when Pavlof started erupting. By the time she was ready to fly home to Unalaska on PenAir, ash emissions were starting to disrupt flights.

Shae: "Now I wish that I had just stayed because the hotels in Anchorage are so outrageous right now."

Shae says she’s paid more than $300 to stay in Anchorage over the last two days, and counting.

One thing PenAir and Grant have exactly in common? They’re not offering any kind of vouchers or discounts to customers affected by the volcanic eruptions.