European Airports Now Open after Ash Plumes Cause Airport Disruptions over the Weekend

May 10, 2010

Ash spewing from an Icelandic volcano prompted flight cancellations in parts of Europe on Sunday. Click here to read the lastest from Bloomberg Business Week.

Germany’s air-safety authority reopened airspace over Munich Sunday night after earlier closing it because of contamination from the ash cloud.

Airports in the north of Spain were closed, but they reopened at 2 a.m. local time today, while Austria’s air traffic authority shut terminals in Vienna, Innsbruck, Linz and Salzburg yesterday.

Airports in the north and center of Portugal were also affected, Eurocontrol said. While airports in Italy, at Milan, Pisa and Florence, reopened Sunday, many flights were delayed, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.

In Ireland, five West Coast airports were completely closed.  Although the country’s largest airports remained open, flights were drastically re-routed in order to avoid the volcano’s ash cloud.  The re-routing caused a bottle neck to occur for many of the planes, creating severe delays for passengers.

Click here to read how the ash plumes may continue in the coming week. Read this report from the Wall Street Journal.

Please e-mail questions@ntastaff.com if you have any questions or have had any disruptions due to these delays. Also, feel free to contact us via Facebook with questions or concerns regarding this situation.