Sunday, May 9, 2010

Munich airport is closed

Munich airport is closed and some en-route sectors have restictions.

Some Spanish airports opened and Italy closes the north

North of Italy is closed to air traffic today until, minimum, 2pm due the ashes cloud from Eyjafjalla volcano. Only Venecia, Trieste and Rimini keep opened.

Airports in the Milan area are unavailable due to airspace closures until midday, and Pisa and Florence airports are also closed. During the day, it is expected that the area affected by the ash cloud will shrink and most of the airports that are currently closed are expected to open later.

Most Spanish airports are opened but A Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Vigo and Salamanca remain closed.

4pm AENA update: The evolution of the volcanic ash cloud forces to close the airports of Asturias, Santander, Bilbao, Salamanca, Valladolid, Leon and Burgos starting at 4:00pm today. The airports of Santiago, A Coruña and Vigo reopen at 5:00pm. The rest of the AENA airports operates normally.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Barcelona's airport closes at 3.30pm today




Barcelona, Girona and Reus airports close at 3.30pm today until, minimum, 8pm.

Update at 8.45pm: Barcelona's airport will remain closed til midnight. Lleida and Girona keep closed as well, only Reus is opened.

Check your flight cancellations: 902 404 704 or www.aena.es

Spain closes 15 airports due to volcanic ash

Fifteen airports in northern Spain are closed today because of the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano, Spain's airport and air traffic authority Aena announced.
"The movement of the volcanic ash cloud coming from Iceland has forced us to close starting at noon the airports in Bilbao, San Sebastian, Vitoria, Saragossa, Pamplona and La Rioja," Aena said in a statement.
Nine other airports in northern Spain which were already shut down due to the volcanic ash.
The airports will remain closed until at least 6 pm (1600 GMT) Saturday, Aena said.

The cloud is moving towards Catalonia now and if nothing changes, Barcelona, Girona, Reus and Sabadell airport will close by 2pm today.

More info of the flights: www.aena.es

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Ireland to reopen airports, fears ash cloud return

According with a Irish Aviation Authority communication, they would allow flights to resume from all Irish airports from 1200 GMT today but volcanic ash could bring more disruptions later in the week and periodically throughout the summer.

The IAA had closed airports from 0600 GMT until 1200 GMT due to risk of ash ingestion in aircraft engines, although overflights of Ireland from Britain and continental Europe had not been banned.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

"Desafio Extremo" Spanish TV Team chroniques from Iceland


The "Desafio Extremo" team from Cuatro Spanish TV was rescued "last minute" from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano last 14th of April. They remain in the area flying over the volcanoes daily to offer their exclusive chroniques.

Info about the Volcanoes

You can find more info about what's going on with the Iceland Volcanoes here

60% of European flights expected to operate today

Map showing forecast of the spread of volcanic ash

A small number of flights have taken off in northern Europe after five days of inactivity caused by the spread of volcanic ash from Iceland.

The Eurocontrol air traffic agency says it expects up to 60% of flights over Europe to go ahead on Tuesday.

Planes have been departing from Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt among others - though many flights are still grounded.

A new ash cloud spreading from Iceland has meant that most of UK airspace, including London, remains closed. Other closed airspaces are Norway, Denmark, west of Ireland and south of Sweden.

The UK's air traffic control authority, Nats, says it is unlikely that the main airports in London will reopen on Tuesday.

Swiss and northern Italian airspace has reopened. The Swiss authorities said test flights had shown a considerable reduction in the amount of ash in the atmosphere and posed no threat to passenger safety.

Flights have resumed out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Orly airport, which are operating at about 30% capacity.

The skies over Germany are to remain closed until 1800 GMT, with some exceptions.

The German carrier, Lufthansa, says it is planning about 200 flights on Tuesday, taking advantage of special permission to fly visually rather than relying on instruments and keeping in constant touch with air traffic controllers.

In Spain, where all airports were open this morning, the government has offered to let Britain and other European countries use its airports as stopovers to get passengers moving again.

Sources: BBC, Met Office and Eurocontrol

Monday, April 19, 2010

Latest highlights regarding problems for air travel

Here are the latest highlights regarding problems for air travel caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland:

1.-UK airspace will "progressively open" Tuesday, the United Kingdom's air traffic control service said. Britain's Manchester Airport will reopen at 9 a.m. Tuesday unless there is a deterioration in conditions, the agency said

2.- British Airways will aim to resume some flights into and out of London's airports beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday "following the proposed reopening of UK and European airspace by the aviation authorities."

3.- Airports north of a line from Nantes to Nice in France will undergo "a partial reopening," French officials said. Air corridors will be opened between Paris and the airports of the south, including Bordeaux-Paris, Toulouse-Paris, Marseilles, Paris and Nice from 8 a.m. Tuesday. Lyon's airport will open Monday night.

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If you are stucked and need a free bed, check the Couch Surfing web site.

You can find more info about the Couch Surfing movement here

Good luck!