Flights resume - but now ash cloud threatens Bank holiday getaway

But today airline passengers enjoyed near disruption-free flights as the ash cloud from Iceland moved away from British skies.

However, the high densities, expected at around midday on Friday, are predicted to be at heights of between 35,000ft and 50,000ft.

Airliners’ typical cruising height is anything between around 25,000ft and 40,000ft, and the hope is that aircraft flying in and out of the UK will be able to travel under this cloud.

As activity from the Grimsvotn volcano dropped, only a handful of flights in and out of the UK were disrupted today.

With the ash cloud moving away to northern Europe, several UK carriers, including British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair, had to axe some of their German flights.

EasyJet cancelled flights between Gatwick and Hamburg, and Liverpool and Berlin, while Ryanair cancelled some flights in and out of the German airports of Bremen, Lubeck and Magdeburg.

Six flights at Edinburgh airport were cancelled because planes were out of position and Glasgow Airport saw some delays.

Around 700 flights in total were axed across Europe.

Today, Ryanair again questioned the necessity of designating “red zones” of high-level ash over Scotland on Thursday.

But Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said aviation authorities would “not be bullied” by Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary, or anyone else, into departing from a policy of prioritising passenger and aircraft safety.

Looking ahead to the rest of the week, a Met Office spokesman said tonight: “There is a chance of some fairly dense ash at between 35,000ft and 50,000ft over the UK around midday on Friday. This ash is from the original eruption which pushed a lot of ash high into the atmosphere.

“The intensity of the volcano has dropped. There are just steam plumes coming out and it is not putting any ash into the atmosphere.”

Yesterday, hundreds of tired but relieved holidaymakers were driven more than 150 miles to a Yorkshire airport so they could embark on foreign trips despite the ash cloud engulfing northern Britain.

Leeds-based airline Jet2 said around 400 passengers were driven in coaches to Leeds Bradford airport yesterday from Edinburgh to avoid the cancellation of their flights.

Most were jetting off for sun-soaked trips to island destinations such as Majorca and Greece.

“It’s obviously a long drive, but most people seemed relieved to be flying at all,” Jet2 managing director Ian Doubtfire said.

“We do feel a loyalty to get our passengers where they are going – and then there are all the people at the other end waiting for these planes to bring them home.”

Other passengers were less fortunate, with many facing hours of delays in Scottish airports – only to find their flights were eventually cancelled.

Cafes at Glasgow Airport were packed as passengers such as Guy McKinven, from the Clyde Valley area, waited for news.

He said: “You see people shouting and getting upset, but there’s nothing you can do.”

Most flights between Yorkshire airports and Scottish destinations were among those cancelled, with Scottish airspace effectively closed for much of the day.

Eastern Airlines cancelled three flights in and out of Leeds Bradford and three in and out of Humberside Airport .

But a spokeswoman for Humberside said she was confident the disruption would not match the scale of last year.

“It’s a very different situation this year,” she said. “Over the past 12 months the whole industry has worked very hard to explore the safety issues surrounding volcanic ash to help aircraft fly.”

Mr Doubtfire agreed the industry has “learnt a few lessons” over the past 12 months, and had no criticism of the way authorities have handled the affair. “Predicting the weather is not an exact science,” he said. “And there’s not much more the Government can do.”