“Volcanic crisis” in Europe, 6,000 flights cancelled
List of countries closing their airports increasing.
18:49 / 17.04.2010 Virtually all of Europe’s major airports remain closed as a huge plume of volcanic ash drifts south and east across the continent from Iceland.
Millions of air travellers are stranded across Europe after some 16,000 flights were cancelled on Friday.
Britain and Ireland have re-imposed flight bans, warning of "worsening" conditions throughout Saturday.
Airlines are losing some £130m ($200m) a day in an unprecedented shutdown of commercial air travel.
"Current forecasts show that the situation is worsening throughout Saturday," said the UK’s National Air Traffic Service (Nats).
Britain extended its ban on commercial flights until at least 0100 local time on Sunday.
Eurocontrol, which coordinates air traffic control in 38 nations, said the ash was moving east and southeast and warned of "significant disruption of air traffic".
Many countries and airlines have grounded fleets amid fears that the ash - a mixture of glass, sand and rock particles, drifting from 5,000ft (1,500m) - could be catastrophic to aircraft.
About two-thirds of the 28,000 daily flights in the affected zone were cancelled on Friday, while only half the usual number of flights between Europe and North America operated.
The disruption has affected hundreds of thousands of travellers since Wednesday when the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano began erupting for the second time in a month.Bu yazı ( 279 ) - dəfə oxunmuşdur
