Airlines return to near-normal flight schedule

DESPITE an ash cloud 2,100 miles long and 1,400 miles wide hovering off the west coast, Irish airports will be open for business for much of today, allowing airlines to operate a near-normal service.

Donegal, Sligo and Knock airports were all forced to close yesterday afternoon and evening due to the high-risk exclusion zone associated with the concentrated ash cloud.

However, all those airports reopened at 6am today.

The Irish Aviation Authority was able to confirm last night that all airports would remain open until 7pm, though another update was scheduled for 9.30am.

In spite of the confirmation from the IAA that Kerry Airport would reopen at 6am today, Ryanair said it expected airspace there to be closed or restricted until 8.45am and warned that flights to and from the airport might be cancelled until then.

On a more positive note, the airline said it was putting on extra flights today for passengers travelling to and from the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria.

The large cloud of high ash concentration off the west coast caused a lot of difficulty for transatlantic operations and flights into some areas of southern Europe over the weekend.

Yesterday a finger of the main ash cloud centred over the mid-Atlantic at altitudes of up to 35,000 feet and touched on parts of Portugal and Spain, affecting airports at Porto, La Coruna, Vigo and Santiago.

Portuguese airports cancelled 223 flights, including 119 at Porto and 71 at Lisbon, although Faro airport in the south was able to operate normally.

In the north of Italy, airports were closed until 2pm yesterday and as the cloud moved northwards, German authorities halted take-offs and landings at Munich airport at 3pm.

Meteorologists say that until the Eyjafjallajokul volcano in southern Iceland stops erupting, the future course of Europe’s ash crisis will depend heavily on the prevailing winds. The eruption of the volcano has shown no signs of stopping since it began belching ash on April 13.