*Lockdown over British skies extended until at least 7am Sunday
*British Airways cancels all short-haul flights until Monday morning
*Qantas axes all flights to Europe until further notice
*Ash cloud 'worsening throughout today'
One million Britons were stranded abroad last night by the travel paralysis caused by volcanic ash cloud which is spreading over the UK.
The unprecedented air lockdown was extended until at least 7am tomorrow, with Qantas cancelling all flights to Europe until further notice, and the chaos and confusion will drift well into next week.
British Airways has cancelled all short-haul flights until Monday morning, following the lead of Ryanair which has also cancelled all flights until the start of the week.
Some holidaymakers in Spain were told they face a ten-day wait for a flight home and the delays - coming at the end of the Easter holiday period - intensified problems caused by the massive Icelandic eruption.
Schoolchildren, and their teachers, will be missing from classrooms on Monday, and Britain faces shortages of air-freighted food as the impact of the vast spume of ash begins to bite beyond air travel.
A National Air Traffic Control spokesman said: 'The volcanic ash cloud from Iceland is moving around and changing shape.
'Based on the latest information from the Met Office, Nats advises that the restrictions currently in place across UK controlled airspace will remain in place until at least 7am tomorrow, Sunday April 18.
'We are looking for opportunities when the ash cloud moves sufficiently for us to make some airspace available within Scotland and Northern Ireland, which may enable some domestic flights to operate under individual co-ordination with ATC (air traffic control); we will be co-ordinating this closely with airlines and airports.
'It is most unlikely that many flights will operate today and anyone hoping to travel should contact their airline before travelling to the airport.
'We will continue to monitor Met Office information and review our arrangements in line with that.'
It was hoped flights would have resumed from 7pm tonight but current forecasts from the Met Office show the ash cloud is 'progressively covering' the whole of the UK.
Airport operator BAA said: 'Following the latest advice from Nats, all flights to and from all BAA airports are suspended until 7am tomorrow at the earliest.
'Passengers due to fly today should not travel to these airports until further notice, and should remain in touch with their airlines.
'We expect Nats to provide a further update around 1500 today.
'We appreciate the continued patience of passengers at this difficult time and will provide updates as often as possible.'
Neil Morris, senior manager in the aviation team at Deloitte, said the estimated cost to British and Irish scheduled airlines of the airspace closure is likely to be between £26 million and £28 million per day.
British Airways said all its flights to and from London airports are cancelled today.
A number of flights from New York were diverted to Glasgow and Prestwick overnight while restrictions to parts of Scottish airspace were temporarily suspended and passengers were offered ground transport to London.
Budget carrier Ryanair said all its scheduled flights to and from the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, northern France, northern Germany, Poland and the Baltic States have been halted until 1pm on Monday.
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis yesterday warned it was 'likely that significant disruption to most UK air services' would continue for 'at least the next 48 hours'.
Channel Tunnel high-speed train company Eurostar reported that its 58 services were full yesterday.
This meant the company was able to handle more than 46,000 passengers on its trains running between London, Paris and Brussels.
Many people took to ferries to reach the Continent.Minicab company Addison Lee said it had received requests for journeys to cities as far away as Paris, Milan, Amsterdam and Zurich.
One group of businessmen paid a taxi driver £700 to take them from Belfast to London after being stranded by flight disruption.
A British businessman stranded in France last night said he was forced to buy a women's bicycle to board a ferry in a bid to get home for his wife's birthday.
Tom Noble, 52, from Highgate in north London, said ferry operator Norfolkline had no foot passenger tickets left and would only allow him to make the journey if he was a genuine cyclist.
Two flights arrived at Glasgow airport this morning and passengers were taken by bus to onward destinations in Manchester and London.
An airport spokesman said the terminal was quiet, with only 'dozens' of hopeful passengers remaining.'Very few people are here, in fact there are probably more BAA volunteer staff than passengers,' the spokesman said.
Fruit and vegetables including lettuce, grapes, spring onions and asparagus may be missing from many supermarket shelves next week and firms specialising in flying in produce from overseas are also warning of higher prices.
The transport giant Norbert Dentressangle said activity at its perishable air freight handling centre at Heathrow, the UK's largest, was at a standstill.
The result will be a three-day shortfall in the supply of products including prepacked fruit salads and flowers.
It said that while there are enough products on shelves and in warehouses to see stores through the weekend, supermarkets will be 'severely impacted' next week.
Some desperate travellers were paying hundreds of pounds for taxis to bring them back via ferries from Ireland or to take them into Europe.
Forecasters say there is no imminent change in the wind direction to blow the vast cloud away from Britain and large swathes of northern Europe.
Day three of the chaos caused by the Mount Eyjafjallokull eruption saw the first reports of volcanic ash settling in the UK, as World Health Organisation officials suggested people consider wearing masks if they venture outside.
And as Transport Secretary Lord Adonis told travellers to expect ' significant disruption' for at least 48 hours, the cost to airlines alone was put at an astonishing £200million a day.
The assessment of the huge scale of the travel disruption came from the Association of British Travel Agents, which said as many as 150,000 people a day will have left the country in the seven days leading up to the blanket ban on air travel.
A spokesman said: 'We estimate there could be as many as a million British people stranded abroad.'
The majority were stuck in Europe, with Spain particularly popular at this time of year. More than 100 flights were cancelled at Malaga airport on the Costa del Sol. Others are stranded in North America and may have to wait well into next week to return.
Eurocontrol, the organisation in charge of Europe's airspace, said it will hold crisis talks on Monday as more countries closed down national airspace and the volcanic ash cloud continued its south-eastern sweep 35,000 feet above the continent.
Only 12,000 to 13,000 European flights operating yesterday instead of the 29,500 anticipated.
Pilots have reported smelling sulphur dioxide, a gas released by volcanoes, in cockpits, and scientists said traces of volcanic dust on the ground had been found in Sunderland, Sheffield, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Lerwick.
The World Health Organisation said Europeans should try to stay indoors if ash starts falling from the sky.
A spokesman said the microscopic ash was potentially dangerous because inhaled particles can reach the lungs and cause respiratory problems. There is a heightened risk for those with asthma and respiratory diseases.
And while airlines are re-booking and refunding customers, critics accused insurance firms of dragging their feet in deciding whether they would compensate travellers or invoke catchall 'Act of God' clauses to escape a pay-out.
This was not the wedding photo Kelly Williams and Barry Stephens had hoped for.
The couple have been stranded at Gatwick since yesterday morning and look set to miss their dream wedding in Antigua in the Caribbean.
Miss Williams, a fitness instructor from Leicester, said: 'When they told me the plane had been cancelled I burst out crying. I've planned this for three years.
'I'd heard about the volcanic clouds so I was worried we might have problems flying out. But I never thought the flight would be cancelled. I am gutted.'
The 29-year-old, who posed for a photo with Mr Stephens, 28, and their other guests at Gatwick, said they were now trying to find another venue.
'We are going on a three-week European cruise so I am ringing round all the places we stop,' she said. 'I suppose we will have one hell of a wedding day story.'
Chris and Sam Capes flew to America for the trip of a lifetime over Easter.
But the couple and their three-year-old son, Isaac, who were supposed to return home with KLM on Thursday, are now stranded in New York until Tuesday at the earliest.
Mr Capes, a 34-year-old civil servant, said: 'I know there are worse places to be stranded but we have work commitments and need to get home.
'Of all the things that could have delayed our flight we never expected a volcanic eruption to ruin our plans.'
The couple, pictured on their wedding day, organised their road trip around America themselves and are having to foot the extra hotel costs themselves.
Mrs Capes, 33, a beauty therapist from Chester, said: 'I am self-employed so every day I'm away I'm losing money. We've had a fantastic time in America, but this is just a bitter end to our holiday of a lifetime.'
Stranded in Spain
Stacey and Darren Barker and their two children have been told they will be stuck in Spain for at least a week following the closure of UK airports. And travellers have been warned it could be up to ten days.
They had been due to fly from Malaga to Manchester with easyJet at lunchtime yesterday after a week-long break on the Costa del Sol.
However, the airline has told the family they will not get a flight until next Friday. Mr Barker, 35, who owns a bakery in Sheffield, is desperate to get back to work, while their daughter Yasmin, six, should be returning to school on Monday.
Mrs Barker, 28, pictured with Yasmin and son Harrison, two, said: 'I don't understand why it has to take so long. A week is an awfully long time.
'People might think we're lucky to have an extra week's holiday but in reality it's disastrous for us. Darren runs his own business so we're losing money every day that we're here.'
0 comments:
Post a Comment