Manchester Airport - restrictions continue

National Air Traffic Services (NATS) have now confirmed that no flights will be permitted in UK controlled airspace until 1am on Saturday 17 April, at the earliest, due to the volcanic ash that has drifted across the country from Iceland.

Ash particles from the Icelandic volcano eruption are still present in UK airspace and are continuing to ground flights all over the country.

Although some overnight flights have been allowed into Belfast and Glasgow airports, all flights in England and Wales have remained suspended.

As a result, all arriving and departing flights at Manchester Airport remain suspended until further notice.

The airport has advised passengers to continue to check with their airline for the latest information.

The airport will have extra customer service and office staff in the terminals to give whatever assistance and support is possible to passengers.

Up to 950 flights have been said to have been suspended from Manchester and up to 150,000 passengers have been affected.

A statement from Manchester Airport said:

“We would like to express our sincere gratitude to passengers for their continuing patience and cooperation in these unprecedented circumstances.

“We would once again like to apologise to passengers for the inconvenience caused and thank all airport staff for their efforts over the last two days.”

The chaos began yesterday after ash particles from the erupted volcano from the Eyjafjallajoekull region of Iceland entered UK airspace.

NATS initially said all flights would be grounded from 1200 BST until 1800 BST on Thursday.

They imposed the restriction in line with international policy because of the danger of the ash particles to aircraft engines.

But the particles spread south and the suspension was extended until 0700 BST today.
But due to a lack of overnight wind, the ash still covers much of UK airspace and NATS extended the decision to ground all flights until 0100 tomorrow.

A NATS spokesman said: "In line with international civil aviation policy, no flights other than agreed emergencies are currently permitted in UK controlled airspace".

It is said that up to 600,000 UK passengers have been affected and the potential cost to businesses is estimated to be up to £100m.

Elsewhere, the airspace of the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Czech Republic and Poland are also under the same restrictions as the UK.

Europe-wide, it is expected that up to 17,000 flights could be lost today.

www.manchesterairport.co.uk