Volcanic ash continues to disrupt European airspace
Millions of travellers remained stranded Saturday as air travel was interrupted due to a spreading ash from a volcano that erupted in Iceland this week. The British weather forecast service said the cloud was "moving around and changing shape", according to the national air traffic service.
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The drifting ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in southeast Iceland forced the cancellation of some 16,000 flights on Friday, and the chaos continues through the weekend (see below/click here for list of airspace closures).
Europe's three biggest airports, London Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt in Germany, remain closed, and the backlog of flights is causing delays around the globe.
The cloud threatens to keep world leaders from attending funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, planned for Sunday. Poland is considering delaying the ceremony, though a senior presidential aid insisted it will go ahead as planned.
The cloud continues to grow, as more smoke and ash spew out of the volcano which erupted on Wednesday. (See webcam of eruption site here.)
Brian Flynn, Eurocontrol, Brussels
Some airspace above 35,000 feet is being opened, according to Brian Flynn, spokesperson, Eurocontrol in Brussels, but at lower altitude there is not much movement.
“The volcanic ash cloud is in a relatively stable position, it has certainly increased in its scale,” he told RFI, adding that forecasts through midnight GMT Sunday show “more-or-less the same extensive volcanic ash activity throughout the northern part of European airspace.”
“I expect little change today,” Teitur Arason, a forecaster with the Icelandic Meteorological office told RFI. “In the area between Iceland and Europe, westerly winds at high attitudes… will move the ash towards the east, towards Scandinavia and Europe.”
Aviation officials say planes that fly through the ash could stop working, as engines could become clogged.
According to the International Air Transport Association says the closures are costing airlines more than 230 million euros a day.
Disruptions of air traffic in Europe:
- Austrian airspace closed until 6pm GMT Saturday
- Belgian airspace closed until 6pm GMT Saturday
- Bosnian airspace closed until 10pm GMT Saturday
- Most of British airspace closed until at least midnight GMT Sunday
- Northern Croatian airspace closed, including Zagreb airport, but Split and Dubrovnik remain open
- Czech airspace closed until at least 10am GMT Sunday
- Danish airspace closed until midnight GMT Sunday
- Dutch airspace closed until at least noon GMT Saturday; all KLM flights to and from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport cancelled to at least 10pm GMT
- Estonian airspace closed until at least midnight GMT Sunday
- All commercial flights in Finland grounded until 12pm GMT Sunday.
- In France, 23 airports, including the three in the Paris area – Charles de Gaule, Orly and Bourget - closed until 6pm GMT Saturday; Grenoble and Bordeaux closed until 2pm GMT Saturday
- German airspace closed until midnight GMT Sunday; Hamburg airport to remain closed until noon GMT Sunday
- Hungarian airspace closed to at least 5pm GMT Saturday
- Icelandic airports remain open
- Irish airspace closed until at least 5pm GMT Saturday
- Italian airspace closed, extended to 6pm GMT Saturday
- Latvian airspace closed until at least 3pm Saturday
- Lithuanian airspace closed until 7pm GMT Saturday
- Some Norwegian airspace open
- Polish airspace closed until further notice
- Russian airports remain open; flights to northern and western Europe cancelled
- Slovakian airspace closed until 10pm Sunday
- Commercial flights to and from Switzerland banned until 6pm GMT Saturday; high altitude flights (above 12,000 metres) allowed
- Ukraine’s main airport in Kiev closed until 12pm GMT; Odessa and Simferopol functioning
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