The air traffic disruption caused by the ash cloud spreading from the Iceland eruption has worsened in the past hours. Due to strong winds, the high-altitude ash cloud is spreading towards south and east. Yesterday, as we wrote in the night, the cloud had reached Scotland already, leading to announcements of service disruption by many major companies operating in the U.K. This morning, the situation immediately worsened in Britain, and air traffic disruption is now spreading throughout Europe and other areas of the globe with inbound flights to Europe.
This morning, Britain’s National Air Traffic Service issued a statement in their website:
“From midday today until at least 6 p.m., there will be no flights permitted in U.K. controlled airspace other than emergency situations. This has been applied in accordance with international civil aviation policy.”
According to BBC news, this means that more than 6,000 flights will be grounded today starting from 11:00am Greenwich time, in one of the biggest service disruptions in recent years in United Kingdom. Heathrow, the largest and busiest airport in U.K. (and second in the world) issues a warning a few minutes ago on their website.
“All flights are suspended at Heathrow until further notice, with no further flights expected to depart or arrive today. This is due to the closing of British airspace by the UK air traffic control service (NATS), because of volcanic ash spreading across the UK from Iceland.
Passengers who are due to fly today should not travel to the airport but should contact their airline for re-ticketing information.
We apologise for the disruption and inconvenience this will cause passengers. Safety is our number one priority and we are doing everything we can to restore a normal service as soon as it is safe to do so. We will provide updates on a regular basis.”
You can search for further updates at London Heathrow Airport website.
But the problem is spreading to most countries in Europe, and to flights incoming from the rest of the world. Denmark, Norway and Sweden announced a ban on flights over their area, and flights were cancelled and/or delayed also in central and southern Europe like the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain.
In Iceland, hundreds of people are waiting for flights at Keflavík International Airport. Ash from the volcano is actually – and surprisingly – not affecting Keflavík airport, but since many major airports in Europe are currently closed, many flights cannot leave the country. Arrival and departures table at Keflavík airport’s website show many cancellations and delays. On a note, we can hear jets flying over our heads in Reykjavík, as usual.
We will post more updates on the situation, so stay tuned! If you have updates you may want to add or questions to ask, please feel free to comment on articles on our website. Also, please join our Facebook page to stay in contact.
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