Eyjafjallajokull Becoming a Major Pain in the Ash for British Airports

Great Britain (May 17) – Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano is once again wreaking havoc with major airports in Great Britain, Ireland, and portions of Europe. Last week a shift, in the jet stream forced the closure of airports in Northern Spain and parts of France.

London’s Heathrow airport one of Europe’s busiest along with other major hubs in Britain were closed once again this weekend as volcanic ash activity darkened the skies. Traffic into an out of Ireland’s main stop over from flights originating out of the United States were unaffected this weekend by the ash cloud however, flights scheduled to land today are being canceled.

In Europe, airports in Amsterdam and Rotterdam are scheduled to be closed for at least eight hours today as officials hope the ash cloud clears the airspace within that period. Flights are being canceled into Schiphol airport, the fifth largest passenger hub in Europe.

These shutdowns come only months after travelers in and out of Europe on holidays were stranded for at least a week when Eyjafjallajokull began belching airplane engine choking ash in to the atmosphere. The volcanic ash has the potential of doing irreversible damage to jet engines prompting these emergency cancelations.

With no signs of Eyjafjallajokull quieting down, airlines are expecting both revenue losses and flight disruptions for the near future.

Posted by rgrone on May 16, 2010. Filed under International Business News,International News,Travel,WorldNewsVine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.