STRANDED passengers at Adelaide Airport have been told Qantas and Jetstar flights have been cancelled for the entire day.

The public address to passengers advised them to go home because check in would be closed for the rest of the day. Qantas also tweeted the information.

Hundreds of people were left queueing in the airport early today as Qantas, Jetstar and Tiger Airways flights were cancelled due to the erupting South American volcano that has caused numerous cancellations and delays since the weekend.

Virgin Blue and regional and international airlines are still flying in and out because airlines are making different decisions on how to deal with ash from Chile's Puyehue volcano in the local airspace.

Some Qantas passengers in lengthy queues were quietly seething earlier today, as next to them Virgin Blue passenger queues checked in smoothly.

Julie Taylor was "furious" about not knowing anything about her cancelled flight to Melbourne.

"It absolutely ridiculous, they spend all the booking time trying to get your contact information and then they don't tell you anything," she said.

"Everything I know so far I have heard from word of mouth and on the news."

An Italian tourist, who did not want to be named, was also angry about the lack of information about his cancelled flight homewards, particularly as he didn't speak much English.

By late morning, some had caught flights with rival airlines but most of the crowds from the cancelled flights had gone home.

Qantas spokesman Tom Woodward earlier said flights to Adelaide would continue to be cancelled if there were safety concerns.

"We have a safety-first approach we don't apologise for but we obviously regret the inconvenience and understand people's frustration," he said.