JDiver

UPDATE: UK Airports likely to close Sunday to Tuesday (May 16 to 18)

European air travel was severely disrupted by atmospheric volcanic ash from the eruption of Icelandic volcano for seven days in April; future disruptions may be expected if eruption and winds aloft bring more atmospheric ash to European skies.

If you are travelling in the next few weeks to, from or through Western Europe including the UK and Ireland (and even as far south as Spain), please check your flights' status, as well as the operating and ticketed airlines' status and alternatives.

AA travel policies and flight reinstatements / cancellations are too dynamic to post here. Please use the links to the aa.com and AA UK sites to review what is being posted currently by AA.


LINK to AA USA travel policy page of the moment. (No, these are NOT the same policies as linked to below!)

LINK to AA UK so you can check that travel policy page of the moment. (No, these may NOT be the same policies as linked to above!)

LINK to European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU) Network Operations Portal

LINK to EUROCONTROL, including ash updates

LINK for Ireland airspace issues updates

LINK NATS UK updates on UK airspace issues

LINK to EC Regulation No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights...

LINK to BBC - check for articles on UK air disruption

LINK to the Guardian (UK) website

LINK to BBC Science explanation of WHY volcanic ash can be dangerous to fly through (illustrated)

LINK to FT thread, "European airspace closure Apr 2010 - general posts and discussion", previously titled "UK Airspace closed today - no info from AA"

Please keep this thread to post your or our updates only, and add your remarks, comments, effects on travel, etc. to the dependent thread originally dealing with UK closures.

JDiver

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SmilingBoy

Here is the forecast of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute:

http://met.no/?module=Articles;actio...icShow;ID=2873

paulmcgrath

RadarVirtuel have updated their site to show what areas the plume is covering at the moment - http://www.radarvirtuel.com/

JDiver

N.B. Posts documenting personal experience, discussing the situation in general, et al, will be moved to the dependent thread mentioned in the first post.

/Moderator

nbevan

The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in London has a list of the most recent forecast maps.

paulmcgrath

Animated gif map of the forecasted movements of the cloud...

http://met.no/filestore/animation_2010041700.gif

skye1

Airspace over the south of England (read: Heathrow) closed until 7pm this evening. Update from NATS to come at 3pm local time.

JDiver

Many are advising chaos for a week even if the ash cloud dissipates - and it could do that, or yet another ash cloud could materialize. The airlines have huge passenger backlogs, flight schedules are far from normalized.

The best scenario: the magma flow is reduced, the volcano returns to dormancy.

The most likely scenario: it's not over yet, as the 1821-1823 eruption sputtered on for thirteen months, and travelling to north and western Europe will be a dicey, cat-waits-for-mouse game of opportunistic travel. The volcano has renewed its effort overnight, so now it's up to weather and wind patterns. And the last time this hard-to-pronounce Eyjafjallajökull's volcano erupted, nearby Katla volcano erupted as well. (35 volcanoes exist in this chain.)

The worst case scenario: Another 1783 scenario, where severe volcanic eruptions wiped out much of Icelandic agriculture and resultantly perhaps 25% of the population, as well as affecting western Europe for some time: "The eruption also eventually killed tens of thousands of people on the Continent. Benjamin Franklin was in Paris at the time and was one of the first to connect the rapid change in local weather that collapsed European agriculture with a volcanic explosion. 1783 became known as the horrible "year without summer." Europe plunged into a period of poverty that lasted for years. Some historians believe that this may have contributed to the French Revolution of 1789." (Wall Street Journal article)

androobe

OFFICIAL: All UK airports reopen at 2200 tonight. No restrictions over UK airspace for the forseeable future.

phish1209

looks like it is getting bad again...first two flights out of BOS to LHR today have been cancelled....i would guess because the 757's cant make this longer route without a refuel stop......

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100508/D9FIKSRO0.html

Ash delays, reroutes trans-Atlantic flights
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BRUSSELS (AP) - Most flights between Europe and North America will be delayed on Saturday due to the spreading cloud of volcanic ash stretching across much of the northern Atlantic, the European flight control agency said.
Flights will have to be rerouted north over Greenland or south over Spain to avoid the 1,200-miles (2,000-kilometer) -long cloud stretching from Iceland to northern Spain, Eurocontrol said. This will increase flying times by about an hour in either direction.
"We assume that basically most of the trans-Atlantic flights will have to be rerouted on Saturday," Eurocontrol spokeswoman Kyla Evans said. "We expect substantial delays because of that."
Approximately 600 airliners make the oceanic crossing every day. Around 40 percent will be rerouted southward and the rest will skirt Iceland from the north.
The plume of ash also forced the closure of 15 airports in northern Spain on Saturday and is expected to expand into southern France during the day, carried along by Atlantic winds. Spain's main international airports of Madrid and Barcelona were expected to remain open.
Just over 100 flights were canceled at mainland Portugal's three international airports on Saturday because of the ash cloud, the national airport authority ANA said.
"During the day, the area affected by volcanic ash is expected to extend from Iceland, south to Portugal and possibly as far east as Barcelona and Marseille," a Eurocontrol advisory said.
Until Eyjafjallajokul (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl), the volcano in southern Iceland, stops its emissions, the key to the future course of Europe's ash crisis will be the prevailing winds. The eruption of the glacier-capped volcano has shown no signs of stopping since it began belching ash April 13. It last erupted from 1821 to 1823.
Since the ash is reaching altitudes of up to 35,000 feet (10,000 meters), right in the path of most trans-Atlantic flights, it will effectively block the usual routes. Eurocontrol said this would cause significant congestion, particularly in the airspace over Spain and Portugal where many of the diverted flights are heading.
A trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris, which is normally about 5,800 kilometers (3,600 miles) long, could add on another 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) - and an hour of flying time - by being diverted over the Iberian Peninsula.
Tracks across the Atlantic normally follow "great circles" - the shortest path between two points on the globe. They are determined each day by air traffic control centers on both sides of the Atlantic, generally depending on the jet stream from North America to Europe.
Planes flying the track system typically follow each other in 10-minute intervals and at altitude levels 1,000 feet (300 meters) apart, in order to maintain safety in airspace which is beyond the range of radar control.

phish1209

actually looking further it appears flights are cancelled in ORD, MIA & JFK....I need to get back there for work and I keep delaying as i am nervous now i will get stuck there for ten days again!

JDiver

Specific experiences and flight disruptions have been moved to the Consolidated thread linked to previously / above. Please follow those there.

/Moderator

TrojanHorse

Same here; I requested not to go and was not granted the request.. if I get stuck again, the company is not getting off cheap next time.. the heck with them

More ash spewing today according to the tube; Back in april they did say up to six months of disruptions, they weren't kidding I guess

JDiver

Further ash cloud disruption is predicted for tomorrow, with a number of cancellations announced. Lengthy in flight detours promise lengthier flights / delays, making short connections difficult or impossible for some fliers.