Europe Flights to Start Taking Off Soon

European officials carved up the sky Monday, creating three zones to more quickly break the flight deadlock caused by volcanic ash flowing from Iceland over Europe. Many more flights will be able to take off on Tuesday, the bloc said.

European countries can resume airline traffic in designated "caution zones" where the threat of ash is considered less dangerous, French officials said after a meeting of the bloc's 27 transport ministers.

Under the accord, one area — defined by the European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol — will remain entirely off limits to flights. Another area will be open to all flights and a third area will be a caution zone in which some flights will be allowed.

The EU said as of Tuesday morning "we should see more planes starting to fly."

Earlier, Germany's aviation authority granted Lufthansa an exemption to fly 50 long-haul planes carrying 15,000 passengers back home at a very low altitude and the British government sent Royal Navy warships to rescue those marooned across the Channel by flight cancelations.

Britain chimed in with more good news, saying flight restrictions over Scottish airspace will be lifted Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT, 2 a.m. EDT) and other British airports could reopen later that day as well.

As airline losses spiraled over $1 billion, the aviation industry blasted European officials, claiming there was "no coordination and no leadership" in the crisis that shut down most European airports for a fifth day.

Eurocontrol, the air traffic agency in Brussels, said less than one-third of flights in Europe were taking off Monday — between 8,000 and 9,000 of the continent's 28,000 scheduled flights. Airports in southern Europe were open, however, and Spain offered to become an emergency hub for the whole continent.

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Volcanic Ash Stops More Europe Flights

Updated information from National Geographic regarding the continuing cancellation of flights to and from Europe, due to an Icelandic Volcano erupting.

First we have H1N1, then we have earthquakes and mudslides that have rocked the world, and now we have our second batch of cancelled flights due to volcanic eruptions, the first happening in the Pacific ocean, cancelling flights to Japan. What will happen next?


James Owen in London
for National Geographic News
Published April 15, 2010

Airline flights to, from, and within northern Europe have been cancelled today because of fears that a vast cloud of volcanic ash spreading from an Iceland volcano could bring down passenger planes (map of northern Europe).

British airports are completely closed to civilian aircraft following latest eruptions from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. (Pictures: Iceland Volcano Erupts, Under Ice This Time.)

Thousands of flights have likewise been cancelled to and from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark as affected countries close airspace in response to the volcanic cloud, which is currently drifting at altitudes of 25,000 to 30,000 feet (7,620 to 9,140 meters).

(See aerial pictures of the Iceland volcano's earlier eruption.)

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