Airport Latest The British government has come under heavy criticism as flight bans have extended into Tuesday morning causing even more delays.

The British government came under heavy criticism by passengers, airlines and ministers over the slow response by the ash clouds from the Iceland volcano which has crippled airports and is expected to halt all air travel till at least Tuesday morning.

Criticism came as a British Airways Boeing 747 did a successful test flight from London’s Heathrow airport to Cardiff Airport on Sunday. The flight was described as Perfect conditions and no difficulties encountered.

The flight lasted for two hours and 46 minutes and was carrying BA chief Willie Walsh, A spokesman for the airline said “The conditions were perfect and the aircraft encountered no difficulties. It will now undergo a full technical analysis at British Airways’ engineering base at Cardiff. Initially it ascended to 10,000 feet, then increased altitude in stages of 5,000 feet, remaining for five minutes at each level before reaching 40,000 feet. The aircraft stayed at 40,000 feet for an hour. Returning east, it descended across Ireland from 19,000 to 15,000 feet, landing at Cardiff at 8.41pm.”

Airlines have said there was a huge over reaction by the British government and that the crisis was not assessed fully before halting air travel. There was also added pressure as airlines are complaining that they are loosing over $300 Million (230 Million Euro) a day

Some officials are branding the air chaos as embarrassing as it took five days just to organise a conference call with the ministers of transport said an official from the International Air Transport Association.

Governments all over Europe are making plans to bring their citizens home with Great Briton planning to use the royal navy to bring Britons back to their soil via sea.

“We clearly have a reasonable lift capacity within the Royal Navy for lifting people… we are finding exactly what ships are available, what would be able to move, what’s the best port to go to,” said Lord West, Security minister.

Mean while new video’s of the volcanic ash crippling air traffic in Northern Europe have emerged showing ongoing ash being let into the air. There are also reports that the smoke might be going as far as Canada. Experts are saying in worst case scenarios, the volcano can let ash spew to the air for at least 2 to3 weeks more and maybe even longer.

Latest video of ash cloud caused by Iceland Volcano.

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