Icelandic volcanic ash grounds flights, Ryanair cancels under protest

FLIGHT cancellations have hit British airports as volcanic ash spreads over Britain from Iceland for the second time in little more than a year.


US president Barack Obama cut short a visit to Ireland to fly to England as the column of ash approached the republic.


British Airways cancelled flights to and from Scotland as did Aer Lingus, Flybe and Loganair. Other air services operating out of Scotland cancelled flights as ash drifted across Scottish airspace.


KLM and Britain's Eastern Airways announced that scheduled flights from Newcastle and Durham Tees Valley airports would remain grounded after the eruption of the Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano.


The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) ordered Ryanair to cancel flights to Scotland after the budget airline objected to advice not to fly to and from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.


Protesting, the Irish low-cost carrier said on its website: "Ryanair strongly objects to this decision and believes there is no basis for these cancellations. Ryanair believes that there is no safety risk to aircraft on flights operating to and from Scotland."


British aircraft are authorised to fly in medium density ash, but Met Office says levels are higher than that below 35,000 feet, meaning planes could have to navigate routes around the plume.


The disruption came just over a year after the eruption of the Eyjafyoll volcano sent British airspace into meltdown, causing the worst flight restrictions in living memory, reported London's Daily Telegraph.


The ash cloud has prompted the Icelandic air traffic control operator, Isavia, to introduce a 120-nautical-mile no-fly zone around the volcano, closed the country's main airport, Keflavik, and cancelled domestic flights, reports London's International Freighting Weekly.


It said the UK's Met Office expects the ash cloud to affect parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and parts of northern Russia. It has also warned the ash could afterwards spread to parts of Spain and France, depending on how the weather develops.


According to Richard Taylor, a spokesman for the UK Civil Aviation Authority, the volcanic eruption will have less of an impact this time round because the airline industry had learned lessons from last April's eruption when another Icelandic volcano spewed a tower of ash into the skies.


Last year, thousands of flights had to be cancelled after European airspace was closed for six days, costing airlines and airports an estimated $1.7 billion in lost revenue. Airlines were estimated to have lost GBP130 million (US$209 million) a day, the report said.


Mr Taylor was quoted as saying, "You won't see the wholesale closures that were implemented back then, unless the ash concentration gets particularly dense."


BAA, the owner of London Heathrow, London Stansted and four other UK airports, has established up a crisis support team to respond to any reduction in flights.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)