Flights still suspended
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

Much of European airspace still remains closed. Airports near The Alps are affected too with people trying to get home after Easter holidays and others going out for the final weeks of the season.

There has been massive disruption to air travellers, some of whom are skiers and snowboarders who are returning back to the UK as the Easter school holidays end.

Also with the season finishing in the majority of ski resorts many British alpine workers are returning home. There are also people trying to get to the alpine glaciers for ski courses.

The end of season is a popular time with ski instructors for training and courses.

The disruption has continued through the weekend.

Airspace in Austria and Switzerland is shut, with partial closures in France and Italy. The UK remains closed.

"I am so thankful that we decided to drive out to the Alps for our Easter holidays and I must admit I am feeling a bit smug!", one PlanetSKI reader has told us in Verbier.

She drove back to the UK last Friday and says the roads were clear and even the Channel Tunnel was relatively empty.

"I was expecting there to be heavy traffic but not a bit of it," she adds. "Everything was running smoothly."

Courses continueThe British Assocation of Snowsports Instructors, BASI, is running courses in Hintertux in Austria that started at the weekend and it says the courses will go ahead despite the air travel problems.

"All courses are scheduled to start as advertised and the trainers will be in resort. If your flight has been cancelled and you are not able to get to resort by any other means of transport, arrange to be in resort before Tuesday evening as we will be extending courses to run over Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th but only if required," says a statement on its web site.

"If you are not going to be in resort for the start of your course due to flight cancellations please e-mail us your name, the course you are booked onto and when you expect to be in resort," it adds.

At a standstillThe Eyjafjallajökull glacier had remained dormant for over 200 years.

Iceland has a high concentration of active volcanoes. It has about 130 volcanic mountains.

Hot larva and debris is spouting from the volcano and is beginning to melt the Eyjafjallajökull glacier.

Many people have been evacuated as unprecedented flooding is anticipated.

Water levels are rapidly rising, reaching depths of 3m in some places, and increasing.

The Eyjafjallajökull eruption is pushing steam and volcanic debris high into the atmosphere.

A thick plume of steam, smoke, ash and volcanic dust and stone has already disrupted flights to Scandinavia and as the thick cloud moves east, many more flights may be cancelled or disrupted.

It looks like flights will remain grounded until Sunday and there will be massive problems getting things back to normal.

See this story on the BBC for information on European air travel chaos.

See below for some information we put up earlier.

Since the above Associated Press news item was released, all UK airspace was closed. Volcanic ash presents a vey serious effect to aircraft.

According to the BBC - "Nats has confirmed that the closure of UK airspace is unprecedented. After the 9-11 terrorist attacks in America, transatlantic flights were suspended and the airspace over London alone was closed. But this is the first time all flights into and out of the UK have been grounded."

See here for more BBC information

Footage of the volcanic eruption in Iceland from ITN.

Several earthquakes have also been registered in the area.

Scientists are concerned that the build up of magma beneath the glacier may cause a phreatic eruption. This is where magma comes into contact with water and the extreme temperatures quite literally causes a collosal explosion of rock, steam, water, and ash. There was a phreatic eruption when Washington's Mount St Helens erupted in May1980 which caused a massive avalanche of debris in addition to larva flow.

Scientists are also concerned that the increased seismic activity combined with the current volcanic eruption may also cause the Katla volcano to erupt.

Katla has the reputation of being one of the most volatile volcanoes in Iceland. Its peak is around 1,512m.

It is partially covered by the Myrdalsjokull glacier which covers an area of approximately 600km². It's last major eruption was in 1918.

See here for more information from BBC.

See here for active/inactive volcanoes in Iceland