Airline chaos as ash cloud returns

AP

Smoke plumes from the Grimsvotn volcano rise above Iceland (AP)

Disruption at airports caused by the latest Icelandic volcanic ash cloud crisis is expected to spread to some northern England airports later on Tuesday.

The eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano has already led to airlines cancelling a number of flights to and from Irish and Scottish airports.

Shortly after 9.30am, air traffic control company Nats said "an area of volcanic ash" was forecast to affect some parts of the UK between 1pm and 7pm.

Nats said airports remained open but that services from Londonderry, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Prestwick, Newcastle, Carlisle, Durham Tees Valley and Cumbernauld airports may be affected.

Nats said passengers should check with their airline before travelling to these airports. The airports listed by Nats could all possibly experience high- level densities of ash.

In the meantime, airlines have already axed many flights to and from Scotland, with British Airways not operating any flights between London and Scotland before 2pm. Scots regional airline Loganair scrapped 38 flights and Irish carrier Aer Lingus said it had cancelled 12 flights to and from Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said: "There is some early indication that the scale and power of the eruption might be subsiding a little bit. Perhaps it's a little bit too early to be absolutely sure about that, but clearly that's the most important thing. If the ash stops belching out of the volcano then, after a few days, the problem will have cleared, so that's one of the factors."

Ryanair said it carried out a one hour flight 41,000ft over Scotland this morning in the so-called "red zone" of the ash cloud from Glasgow Prestwick to Inverness, on to Aberdeen and then south to Edinburgh.

Ryanair said there was no visible volcanic ash cloud or any other presence of ash and post flight inspections revealed no evidence of ash on the airframe, wings or engines.

"This morning's verification flight has demonstrated that the UK Met Office's 'red zone' forecasts are totally unreliable and unsupported by any evidence of volcanic ash concentrations whatsoever," Ryanair said.