European flights back under an ash cloud

Airports in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, were closed for all or parts of yesterday, and flights were cancelled from airports across the UK including Gatwick, Belfast, Derry, London Stansted, Bristol, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle.

Over the day, about 500 of 25,000 scheduled flights failed to take place, according to the continental air traffic centre Eurocontrol.

A spokesman for easyJet said all passengers were advised to check their flights online before travelling.

An ash cloud above north-west Scotland forced the closure of Benbecula and Stornoway airports in the Hebrides, although they later reopened. The airports at Kirkwall, in Orkney, and Inverness, were closed for part of the day, and Barra airport in the Outer Hebrides was closed until 1am today.

Separate ash clouds above parts of France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal, caused problems all day.

An ash cloud hanging over the Atlantic was causing westbound flights to re-route and Heathrow Airport said transatlantic services were suffering delays of up to two hours. Ryanair said it had scheduled extra flights between Dublin and London Stansted and Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Tenerife, yesterday and today, for passengers whose flights had been cancelled.

The Ireland West airport (at Knock) started cancelling take-offs and landings yesterday afternoon and was expecting to close down early last night. There was also disruption at Donegal, Sligo and Kerry, for part of the day, although Dublin and Cork operated normally.

In Portugal, more than 200 flights were grounded, including 71 at Lisbon, where Pope Benedict XVI is due to arrive tomorrow for a four-day visit to the country.

And problems at Nice, in the south of France, raised the prospect of international travellers failing to arrive for the Cannes Film Festival this week.

Forecaster Rachel Vince, from MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "The volcano appears to still be erupting but there is a north-easterly wind between the UK and Iceland so the ash is being kept away from the British Isles.

"As the ash gets to a lower level it is being blown by a westerly wind towards southern Europe."

The Met Office said renewed activity in the Eyjafjallajokull volcano from Thursday last week – now subsiding – had sent ash up to heights of 20,000ft to 30,000ft and the disruption could continue for several days. A switch in the prevailing wind direction, which looks possible tomorrow or Wednesday, could bring more of it to the UK. But the Met Office said the likeliest developments would move the ash away.

Lisa Thiel, 29, who lives in Leeds, is stranded in Barcelona with her father Alan. The pair travelled to Spain for the Grand Prix and when they checked yesterday afternoon there were no predicted problems with their easyJet flight.

However when they arrived at the airport at about 6.30pm the service was cancelled, and they cannot get another flight home until Wednesday.

Miss Thiel said: "There was a very long queue at the easyJet check-in desk, but there are staff helping to find hotels."

Mr Thiel estimated there were around 450 people queuing in the easyJet hall after their flights were cancelled. The airline has agreed to reimburse accommodation up to 90 euro per person per night, and refund 25 euros for food, Miss Thiel said.