Even as scientists downgraded the alert level for the recent activity at Alaska's Pavlof volcano this week, regional air travel was canceled due to the plumes of smoke still spewed by the mountain.

The volcano, which has been spewing ash and lava for years in an uninhabited region nearly 600 miles southwest of Anchorage, began erupting with new intensity late last week and prompted Alaska scientists to issue their highest volcanic alert in five years.

A mix of high winds and volcanic ash from Pavlof prompted airline PenAir to begin canceling flights from Anchorage to a pair of Aleutian Island destinations, Cold Bay and Dutch Harbor late Tuesday, spokeswoman Missy Roberts said in a story by Reuters.

Cancellations continued through Wednesday as the airline -- which serves many communities that are off the state's road system and is usually accustomed to operating in even the most extreme weather conditions throughout the year -- monitored the volcano's activity continuously.

Pavlof is situated underneath a route often used by jetliners flying between North America and Asia, but though those particular planes usually fly at elevations of about 30,000 feet, which would not be affected by any volcanic ash or smoke, which generally remain at lower elevations, explained scientists from the Alaska Volcano Obervatory, a cooperative program of the United States Geological Survey, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys.

The AVO reduced Pavlof's the alert level Wednesday from red to orange, the second-highest level, because of the reduction in seismic tremor activity, geologist Game McGimsey told Reuters.

A red-level alert indicates a hazardous eruption is imminent, underway or suspected, while an orange alert means there's an increased potential for an eruption -- or that an eruption is underway but poses limited risk, according to a posting on the observatory Website.

Steam and ash from Pavlof continue to reach as high as 24,000 feet, or about 4.5 miles into the sky, McGimsey said, although no ash has reached any communities.

"The eruptive activity continues pretty strong," he said. "There is lava fountaining going on."