Flights cancelled as volcano ash nears

Multiple airlines yesterday cancelled flights for the following morning as volcanic ash continued to drift south and west from Iceland.


Loganair, the Scottish regional carrier, was the first outside Iceland to announce cancellations as a result of the latest eruption of Grimsvotn, the country's largest volcano, reported Dow Jones Newswires.


Later yesterday, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, British Airways and easyJet cancelled flights to and from locations in Scotland and northern England because of the ash.


The mounting cancellations recollect the widespread air-travel chaos caused by another Icelandic eruption last year, when ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano forced roughly 80 percent of European airspace to close during the Easter holiday.


Loganair said that "the volcanic ash forecasts issued by the UK Met Office indicate that a high density of ash will be present in large parts of Scottish airspace."


Loganair said its afternoon flight schedule today today remained in doubt as the UK Met Office expected the ash to persist through the day "and will clear progressively tonight into tomorrow morning".


KLM, which is part of Air France, cancelled 16 flights to and from Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle slated for this morning, according to a message on its website. British Airways, which is part of International Consolidated Airlines Group, also cancelled Scotland flights because of the drifting ash cloud.
And easyJet cancelled flights involving Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen in Scotland.


While Iceland's main airport at Keflavik was due to reopen late today, projections from the Icelandic Met Office show the ash plume reaching northern Scotland by late Monday and reaching as far as southeast England by midday, with the cloud stretching east to southern Norway and Sweden.


Scotland's main international airports in Glasgow and Edinburgh remained open Monday but said they anticipated "disruption" on Tuesday.


The airports said on their websites that airlines would make the decision whether or not to operate, in line with new protocols introduced after the chaos caused by a volcanic eruption last year.


The plume is seen concentrated between 3,000m and 6,000m, though it may "pulse" as high at 10,000m in some areas, a height that could force diversion of some transatlantic services.
(Source:http://www.cargonewsasia.com)