UK Airspace Open Tomorrow? May Reopen

UK Airspace Open & Reopen Tomorrow? — Thousand stranded passengers impact of Iceland volcano in the UK may have a new hope today. As reported by many British local media, there will a gradual reopening of UK airspace. Guardian.co.uk reports that UK airspace opening is scheduled from 7am tomorrow. The decision to open UK airspace was initially by UK air traffic controllers who said that relaxation of the no-fly zones would begin in Scotland, south to a line between Teesside and Blackpool in England.

The UK air traffic body Nats held out the prospect of ending restrictions over England and Wales later in the day, saying: “Assuming there are no further significant ash emissions we are now looking at a continuously improving situation.”

But it cautioned conditions were “dynamic and changing”, and said it was difficult to forecast beyond 7am. “However the latest Met Office advice is that the contaminated area will continue to move south with the possibility that restrictions to airspace above England and Wales, including the London area, may be lifted later tomorrow.”

The UK Met Office, citing information from its counterpart in Iceland, issued an advisory note at 12.34pm that said: “Eruption has virtually ceased with only small amounts of ash up to 6,000 feet.”

British Airways said it would aim to resume some flights into and out of London’s airports from 7pm tomorrow. It said it aims to operate long-haul departures that were scheduled to depart after 4pm and short-haul departures scheduled to depart after 7pm. Budget airline Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary said he hoped to get flights going again “by lunchtime Wednesday”. He added that the airline hoped to clear the backlog of flights “within a day or two”.

Manchester Airport said it would reopen at 9am tomorrow, but both Gatwick and Heathrow airports warned passengers not to turn up until they had checked first with their airline.

The government is in talks with airlines over allowing extra flights including night flights into the UK as soon as possible in a bid to help the 400,000 Britons estimated to be stranded around the world.

The transport minister, Lord Adonis, is holding a video conference with European colleagues over other measures and a meeting of Cobra, the UK emergencies committee, is scheduled at 6pm.

Tags: UK Airspace Open, UK Airspace Reopen, UK Airspace Opening, UK Airspace Reopening.