More than a million British airline passengers have been left stranded or had their plans disrupted by the volcanic ash cloud sweeping across Europe.
Hopes had been raised that some flights might be available in Scotland and northern England for six hours between 4am and 10am today, and airlines have drawn up plans to use buses to get passengers to Scotland to make transatlantic flights.
But early this morning air traffic control company Nats said that after reviewing the “worsening” situation, restrictions had been reapplied until at least 1am Sunday except for a small number of domestic flights within Scotland.
Airspace in parts of Ireland is open for a limited number of flights, and restrictions are due to be lifted from all Irish airspace at 7pm. With the skies over Britain having been almost entirely closed for two days, the British airline industry is in the grip of an unprecedented shutdown. An estimated 500,000 people pass through British airports every day. For the past 48 hours, almost all have seen their flights cancelled by the fallout from the Icelandic volcano.
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