Most major European airports have been closed as a plume of volcanic ash drifts south from Iceland across the continent, bringing travel chaos.

Air traffic suspensions are now in force in more than a dozen countries in an unprecedented move.
UK air traffic control said “current forecasts show that the situation is worsening throughout Saturday”.
Thousands of travellers are stranded and airlines are losing an estimated $200m each day.

“The knock-on effect of the volcanic ash plume over northern Europe is likely to disrupt European airspace for several days,” said the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (Canso), a global association of air traffic control companies.

“Traffic will have to be reorganised and rerouted and flights replanned, all on a dynamic and quite unpredictable basis,” it said in a statement.

Many countries and airlines have grounded fleets amid fears that the ash – a mixture of glass, sand and rock particles, drifting from 5,000ft (1,500 metres) – could be catastrophic to aircraft.

In some of the biggest disruption in commercial aviation history, a swathe of northern European sky was empty of aircraft on Friday.

About two-thirds of the 28,000 daily flights in the affected zone were cancelled, while only half the usual number of flights between Europe and North America operated.

Among the latest developments:
The UK’s National Air Traffic Service (Nats) said current restrictions to UK air space would remain in place until at least 1800 GMT on Saturday, with the same restriction reimposed air space over Scotland and Northern Ireland, which had been partially open
Ryanair cancelled all flights in northern Europe until 1300 GMT on Monday
All 16 international airports in Germany closed
All Dutch airspace will remain closed until at least 1200 GMT on Saturday
British Airways has cancelled all flights in and out of London on Saturday
The cloud of ash is drifting across an area including the UK, Scandinavia, Poland, northern France and Austria, towards Russia at about 25 mph (40 km/h).
Major hubs

Some 20 countries shut down all or most of their airspace, although restrictions were gradually lifted in Sweden, Ireland and Norway.

Europe’s busiest airports, including Heathrow, Frankfurt and Charles de Gaulle, have been affected by the closures.

The disruption has affected hundreds of thousands of travellers since Wednesday when the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano began erupting for the second time in a month.

“The authorities here are saying that this will continue regularly at least into tomorrow, so the ash will continue to spread,” Gunnar Gestur Geirmundsson, an Icelander at the site of the eruption, told the BBC late on Friday.

“It is an amazing scene with a lot of frozen ice on the ground from the glacier and the volcano erupting above.”

COUNTRIES AFFECTED
Airspace closed:
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Hungary
Latvia
Netherlands
Slovakia
Switzerland

Partial closures:
Austria
France (northern airspace, with Paris airports closed until 1200 GMT Saturday)
Germany (most airports closed)
Italy (northern airspace closed until 1200 GMT Saturday)
Lithuania (air traffic control leaving decision to fly to individual companies)
Norway (limited flights in north)
Poland
Republic of Ireland (most airspace opened Friday)
Sweden (northern airspace opened Friday)
UK (some restrictions lifted)