Some Irish airports to close

A number of airports in the west and south of the country are to close later today due to the volcanic ash cloud, officials said this afternoon.

Donegal, Sligo, and Ireland West (Knock) airports will operate normally until 3pm and Kerry until 10pm, the Irish Aviation Authority said in its latest update, after which they will close, due to the high risk exclusion zone associated with the concentrated ash cloud.

These closures will be reviewed later this evening.

Dublin, Cork and Waterford airports will be open until at least 1pm tomorrow while Shannon Airport will remain open until 7am.

"The past number of days has seen the growth of a large cloud of high ash concentration off the west coast of Ireland, and this has caused difficulty for some trans-Atlantic operations and operations into some areas of southern Europe," the IAA said.

"The cloud, which can be viewed at www.iaa.ie, currently measures approximately 2,100 miles long and 1,400 miles wide."

Ryanair said it was putting on extra flights today and tomorrow to and from Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Tenerife, to and from Ireland and the UK.

It also said it expects airspace over Bologna, Milan Bergamo, Pisa, Turin and Porto to be closed or restricted during today resulting in possible flight cancellations.

Aer Lingus chief executive Christoph Mueller said the airline has so far sent more than a half a million text messages to passengers notifying them of cancelled flights.

In a statement the carrier boss thanked customers for their patience.

“We will continue to do all in our power to get as many of our customers to their intended destinations as we possibly can and to keep all customers updated with the latest information,” he said.

“We thank all of our customers most sincerely for their patience and support throughout this difficult time.”