10/05/2010

Volcano Ash Grounds Flights - Again

Once again, thousands of air passengers have been facing disruption to flights as ash cloud from the erupting volcano in Iceland caused more cancellations.

Spain closed 19 of its airports on Saturday as the cloud of ash from the Icelandic volcano drifted south over western Europe.

But, most European airports, bar a few in Portugal, are now back in service as normal.

Eurocontrol, the European air safety body, said some airspace closures were still in place over Iceland, the Atlantic and Portugal.

Porto Santo and Funchal, in Madeira, and Cascais and Lisbon in Portugal will remain closed even though northerly winds brought the ash back over Ireland and western Scotland on Sunday.

As a result, London Stansted saw 25 Ryanair and four easyJet services to destinations in Spain, Portugal and the Canary islands cancelled.

At Gatwick three easyJet services to Portugal were grounded while another four Ryanair flights to Alicante, Barcelona and Madrid were cancelled.

A spokesman for Heathrow Airport said that disruption there was minimal, with only a small number of flights going to La Coruna affected.

Transatlantic services suffered delays as well as the pilots 'flew around' the ash.

Further services were cancelled from East Midlands, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Liverpool.

Some Spanish and Portugese flights were hit from Belfast on Monday morning as well.

However, on Wednesday an area of low pressure over Iceland is expected to move the ash away from the UK.

Last month, ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano shut down airspace across Europe for five days.

(BMcC/GK)

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