Ash cloud dissipates after disrupting flights over Germany yesterday
Airlines are today returning to normal operations after around 1,000 flights were cancelled in Northern Europe since the Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland started spewing out volcanic ash on Saturday.
Eurocontrol, the European air traffic agency, said some 450 flights were cancelled yesterday in Germany, impacting airports at Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin.
No significant impact on European airspace is expected today.
A spokesman for British Airways told IFW that flights to Poland had operated as normal yesterday, but two flights through German airspace had been cancelled.
DHL said it had implemented contingency plans to process shipments impacted by airspace closures and only minimal delays had resulted.
“Ad hoc road operations were successfully run in Scotland on Tuesday and established, where possible, in the regions affected yesterday,” said a spokesman.
He said DHL’s transatlantic and other European air-based services had not been affected, and late yesterday only minor delays at its European hub of Leipzig were being anticipated.
According to the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, there were still some limited areas of ash concentration across Europe. However, these are expected to have very little or no impact on European air traffic in the next 48 hours.
Mike King | Thu, 26 May 2011, IFW News