Volcanic ash from Iceland's erupting volcano is again grounding flights in Europe as it continues to spread across the continent. Millions of travelers are being affected as flights are canceled and delayed. Civil aviation authorities say the disruption could last for several more days.
The European Air Traffic navigation and safety organization, Eurocontrol, says it expects further flight disruptions across European airspace as a plume of ash from the Icelandic volcano snakes through southern France, Switzerland and northern Italy.

The ash, stretching up from the surface to about 6,000 meters, has forced the closure of a number of airports in northern Italy. The Italian civil aviation authorities announced there would be no flying over a large part of the north of the country most of Sunday due to the ash cloud.

The airport in Venice, a major tourist destination, has so far been spared and is still open for travel. But other popular arrival points, like Pisa and Florence are closed. Passengers are being urged to check details of their flights before traveling to airports.

Millions of travelers in Europe and also those arriving and leaving the continent are being affected. Flight delays and cancellations are expected across Europe on Sunday as the ash cloud continues to disrupt international travel.
It is unclear how long the volcanic ash travel misery will last but authorities expect it could run into next week.

On a normal day, European air traffic control centers handle between 26,000 and 30,000 flights.

Until the volcano in southern Iceland stops its emissions, the future course of Europe's ash crisis will depend heavily on the prevailing winds.
The eruption of the glacier-capped volcano has shown no signs of stopping since it began belching ash April 13.

The five-day closure of European airspace last month due to the ash cloud forced the cancellation of more than 100,000 flights.

The European Union presidency says it hopes some air traffic will resume Monday, easing the near-complete disruption of flights caused by volcanic ash from Iceland. The Spanish secretary of state for EU affairs, Diego Lopez Garrido, says weather forecasters predict skies will clear over parts of Europe Monday, allowing about 50 percent of flights to operate.

But Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands say their airspace will remain closed much of the day. A volcano in southeastern Iceland erupted Wednesday, sending a thick cloud of ash and dust into the air that cancelled most trans-Atlantic and European flights.

Volcanic ash contains glass and rocks that could cause jet engines to shut down in mid- flight. Major European airlines, including KLM, Lufthansa, and Air France, conducted test flights with no passengers Saturday and Sunday and reported no problems.

But meteorologists warned that unpredictable wind shifts were still making air travel too dangerous Sunday. Industry analysts say the airlines are losing about $200 million a day because of the canceled flights, which are also snarling plans for U.S. and Asian travelers.

Air Berlin chief Joachim Hunold criticized the airline shutdowns. He says the decisions were based only on computer models that show how much ash may be in the air.

German media quoted him Sunday as saying that no one has sent up weather balloons to take actual readings.

Iceland's volcano erupted Wednesday and has since been spewing ash several miles into the air. The ash clouds include particles of rock, glass and sand that can get into an aircraft's engine and cause it to stall.Northern European skies were clear of most commercial planes Saturday. The European air traffic agency said Iceland's volcanic eruption, which began on Wednesday, will continue to impact European aviation until at least Sunday morning. Thick clouds of ash continue to blow across the continent. Hundreds of thousands of passengers around the world remain stranded for a third day as European flights were slashed Saturday down to one-quarter of their normal number. The shutdowns are expected to continue for at least another several days. People have crowded onto trains, buses and ferries in a bid to carry out their travel plans - and cab companies say they are being paid thousands of dollars to ferry people across Europe by car. The European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol said only 6,000 flights would take place in European airspace Saturday - down from the 22,000 normally expected. On Friday, Eurocontrol said about 16,000 or Europe's usual 28,000 daily flights were canceled. Airspace in northern France was closed until Monday morning. Southern Europe, including Spain, southern Italy, Greece, and Turkey remains open for flights. Martin Crozier, senior meteorological officer at the Guernsey Met Office in England, says the volcanic eruption in southeast Iceland that has sent European aviation into meltdown is showing no sign of easing up. "The situation hasn't improved at all I'm afraid," he said. "The volcano over Iceland is still producing quite a lot of ash. The upper level winds are still transporting that down towards the U.K. and northwest Europe. So if anything we have a reinforcement of the ash that's already up there - so things aren't looking too good today I'm afraid."

Crozier says the wind patterns that are pushing the volcanic dust towards Europe are expected to persist for days to come. "I think we're going to get the upper level winds carrying that ash down for a few more days yet until the upper wind patterns change which will probably not happen until the time frame Thursday-Saturday. So really at a worst-case scenario, with the volcano still going strongly, we could get airspace affected for the next few days," he said.

Iceland's volcano erupted Wednesday and has since been spewing ash several miles into the air. The ash clouds include particles of rock, glass and sand that can get into an aircraft's engine and cause it to stall.

The International Air Transport Association said Friday that the airline industry is losing more than $200 million in revenue a day - and they called this a conservative estimate.

Crozier says European aviation has never seen anything like it. "In terms of disruption to aviation I think this is probably the worst it's been in northwest Europe," he said.

The last major disruption to European aviation followed the September 11 attacks in the United States almost a decade ago. U.S. airspace was closed for three days and European airlines cancelled all transatlantic flights.

The World Health Organization has warned people with breathing problems to remain indoors as much as possible when the ash is falling.

Airspace was closed Saturday in at least parts of more than a dozen countries - in some countries, the skies were emptied of commercial flights.

A huge cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland has disrupted air travel across Europe for a second day, as stranded passengers face the most extensive shutdown of airspace since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The skies above large parts of Europe were empty for a second day Friday, as air safety authorities warned that the cloud of ash from Iceland's volcano is spreading.

Brian Flynn, head of operations at the European air traffic control body, addressed a press conference in Brussels.

"Today the situation has deteriorated somewhat," he said. "We would be expecting 29,500 flights today. We think we will only have about 12- or 13,000 flights able to operate. So effectively we will be losing more than 50 percent of the normal passenger movements in Europe today."

Civilian aircrafts are right now not flying in Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, the north of France including all Paris airports, northern parts of Germany, parts of Poland including Warsaw airport and the Czech Republic.

And Flynn says the cloud is spreading. "The southern part of Europe is for the most part clear but the volcanic ash cloud is anticipated to extend slightly further south and eastward during this night," he said.


A huge cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland has disrupted air travel across Europe for a second day, as stranded passengers face the most extensive shutdown of airspace since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The skies above large parts of Europe were empty for a second day Friday, as air safety authorities warned that the cloud of ash from Iceland's volcano is spreading.

Brian Flynn, head of operations at the European air traffic control body, addressed a press conference in Brussels.

"Today the situation has deteriorated somewhat," he said. "We would be expecting 29,500 flights today. We think we will only have about 12- or 13,000 flights able to operate. So effectively we will be losing more than 50 percent of the normal passenger movements in Europe today."

Civilian aircrafts are right now not flying in Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, the north of France including all Paris airports, northern parts of Germany, parts of Poland including Warsaw airport and the Czech Republic.

And Flynn says the cloud is spreading. "The southern part of Europe is for the most part clear but the volcanic ash cloud is anticipated to extend slightly further south and eastward during this night," he said.

The volcano on a glacier in Iceland erupted Wednesday.

The volcano has sent a massive cloud of microscopic ash particles swirling across northern Europe - particles that air specialists say are highly abrasive and could cause aircraft engines to fail.

They could also be bad for people's health, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Spokesperson David Epstein says the ash, which is drifting at an altitude of almost 10 kilometers, could be harmful when it hits the ground.

"These are the same kind of fine matter found in normal air pollution. These can be sulfate, nitrate, ammonia, sodium chloride and if these are small particles they can be dangerous because if they are inhaled they can reach the lungs."

Epstein says when the ash does settle people should remain indoors as much as possible. The United Kingdom Health Protection Agency warned that the ash could cause itchy eyes, a runny nose, sore throat or dry cough.

Colin Macpherson, a professor of Earth sciences at Britain's Durham University, says it's impossible to know how long the volcano will continue to erupt. The last time this volcano did erupt in the early 19th century, he says, it lasted two years.

"Some volcanic eruptions last for just a few days. Others last for months or even years. There is no clear way of predicting at the present time how long this activity might go on for," he said.

But he says, it's because of current wind patterns that the volcano is having such a major affect on European air travel. "It's because we have the prevailing wind at the moment coming from the north, pulling the material down towards Western Europe that we're seeing the impact on the travel of so many people," said Macpherson.

In the spring and summer, he says, he would expect the prevailing winds in Western Europe to come from the West or Southwest - which would mean that the ash would be pushed towards the Arctic or Siberia.

A slowly spreading cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland is covering parts of Europe, shutting down air travel and stranding tens of thousands of passengers around the world. The cloud forced several northern European countries - including Britain, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark - to close their airspace, causing problems for thousands of Asian and U.S. travelers. Airports in Paris, Berlin, and Hamburg have been shut down.

Polish officials have closed the airspace in the northern part of the country. It is unclear how it will affect world leaders heading to Poland for Sunday's funeral for President Lech Kaczynski.

A volcanic eruption in Iceland sent a plume of ash into the atmosphere. British airspace has been closed down for the first time since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York.

"What we are seeing in Iceland is that as the magma particles get towards the surface, they interact with the very cold water and they chill to form glassy fragments and these glassy fragments are small, they have sharp edges and when those get up in the air that is what is causing the risk to aviation," says Colin Macpherson, a professor of Earth sciences at Britain's Durham University.

"Any substantial eruption of a volcano has a potential to do that over a short period of time. By geological standards, this is not what we would call a big eruption," he said.

Macpherson says there is also no way of knowing whether there could be another eruption that could cause a similar ash cloud.

"Because there are only a couple of previous records of eruption at this particular volcano, it is difficult to judge either how long the activity will go on there, or how long the volcano might then be dormant before it goes active again," he said.

Meteorologists and aviation authorities are monitoring wind direction and the ash cloud's movement from Iceland to determine where and when to shut down airspace in Europe. There has also been extensive flooding in the southeastern part of Iceland as parts of a glacier were melted by the volcano.