Volcanic Ash | featured news

British budget airline easyJet unveiled a volcanic ash detector on Friday that it says will allow aircraft to safely navigate around potentially lethal ash clouds.

Britain and the Netherlands shut or planned to close major airports because of volcanic ash from Iceland on Monday, threatening large-scale air traffic disruption in Europe at the start of the working week.

A mammoth cloud of ash is stretching 1,250 miles across the North Atlantic and forcing aircraft to divert south into a long-haul traffic jam, Irish and European air authorities said.

After two successive days of restrictions due to a plume of volcanic ash, airspace was reopened to all flights.

A no fly zone may have to be imposed over Ireland on Tuesday due to volcanic ash drifting south from Iceland, the Irish Aviation Authority said on Monday.

Europe's skies were open for business on Wednesday but, with so many planes having been grounded by the volcanic ash from Iceland, it could take days or even weeks to clear the backlog.

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New eruptions send volcanic ash cloud toward Britain and threaten plans to resume flights.

The aviation industry sharply criticized European governments on Monday for their handling of airport closures, saying there ...

European air traffic could return to about 50 percent of normal levels Monday if weather forecasts confirm that skies over half the continent are emptying of the volcanic ash that has thrown global travel into chaos, the European Union said.

The prospects for a return to normal air travel remained far from clear, however.

Poland prepared on Sunday to bury President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, killed in a plane crash last weekend, but a volcanic ash cloud over Europe prevented many world leaders from attending.