Volcanic ash halts much of Northern Europe air travel

Ash clouds from Icelandic volcano continued to hang over European skies shutting down major airport hubs like Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London and Paris. Airport officials said that they did not know when the skies over aviation's most congested airspace in Europe could be safe again.

The ash clouds disrupted hundreds of flights, almost all trans-atlantic flights were affected as also flights between Asia and Europe. Most of the London and European bound flights were running indefinitely late, as also flights to US and Canada, which fly through Europe.

Britain extended a ban on all non-emergency flights over its airspace till 1800 hrs GMT and flights at Frankfurt Airport, the biggest in Germany were halted indefinitely. France also shut down as many as twenty four airports. Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Lithuania and Belgium also closed their airspace.

Did you know?

This was the biggest flight disruption since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

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Vitis www.eurocontrol.int