Branson: Authorities made stupid decisions over ash cloud

The problem should have been sorted out on the very first day of the crisis last month and the decision to impose yesterday's flight restrictions was "unforgivable", Sir Richard added.

He estimated the airport closures had cost Virgin around 120 million US dollars (about 83 million).

Sir Richard said: "We can do without the authorities making crass, stupid decisions.

"When this crisis started more than a month ago, the then Government and the authorities should have got this sorted out. We should not have had the horror stories. The sense of urgency to get everything sorted out should have been enormous."

He went on: "Lives have been lost. People in hospital have been unable to receive vital organs. Hundreds of thousands of passengers' lives have been made a misery.

"It should have been realised that airlines, aircraft manufacturers and engine makers could deal with this problem and that planes can these days fly though the kind of conditions that would have prevented flights in the past."

"We must ensure that never again do we get into a situation where we have completely unnecessary airspace closures. Yesterday's closures, many weeks after the original eruption, were unforgivable."

Sir Richard said he did not mind paying out millions of pounds to passengers caught up in disruption if there was a good reason for delays and cancellations.

He went on: "This, though, is money down the drain. The situation has weakened our airline and upset our passengers."

The Met Office has defended its forecasting after claims that the ash cloud that caused flight chaos on Monday "did not exist".

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh was among airline bosses highly critical of the Met Office forecasting which led the Civil Aviation Authority to impose some no-fly zones on Monday.

Mr Walsh said there had been no evidence of ash in the skies over London yet flight restrictions had been put in place at Heathrow for the first part of the morning.

But Met Office senior press officer John Hammond said: "There was ash over the UK. Our forecasts are updated regularly and are based on a number of factors, including observations from space and inputs from our colleagues in Iceland. I cannot stress enough just how changeable the ash-cloud situation is. There is change hour by hour and we try to feed through as much information as we possibly can."

Meanwhile, the threat of flight restrictions from volcanic ash will be reduced from today with the introduction of new measures allowing planes to travel at higher ash densities.

After weeks of misery for airlines and passengers, the new Time Limited Zone (TLZ) will allow airlines to resume a more normal schedule.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said to operate in the new zone, airlines need to present them with a safety case that includes the agreement of their aircraft and engine manufacturers.

UK airline Flybe is the first to achieve this and will be able to use the new zone from midday.

CAA chief executive Andrew Haines said the manufacturers established what levels of ash could safely be tolerated.

Air traffic control company Nats said: "As a result of this change, there are no predicted restrictions on UK airspace in the immediate future."