Ash disrupts flights to some destinations

Flights between Switzerland and Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands were disrupted on Monday by volcanic ash from Iceland.

A total of some 40 flights had been cancelled by mid-afternoon at Switzerland’s three main airports, Zurich, Geneva and Basel.

However, the pattern was uneven, as some companies – including the low-cost airline easyJet – decided not to fly, and others – including Swiss and British Airways – took to the air.

As for Switzerland itself, the authorities say that fresh volcanic ash is expected to reach Swiss airspace on Monday evening, but will probably not cause any disruption.

The Federal Civil Aviation Office said that as the ash cloud was predicted to be light, there should be no need to close Swiss airspace.

In a statement, the office that it would be following the ash’s progress and that further measuring flights would be carried out. Rules concerning pilots and air companies checking their planes after flying through the cloud still applied, it added.

Particles from the Eyjafjöll volcano caused disruption at airports in Britain and other parts of northern Europe earlier on Monday, delaying or grounding hundreds of flights.

Sweeping closures of European airspace last month disrupted the travel of millions of passengers in Europe and elsewhere, and cost airlines more than €1billion (SFr1.41billion) in revenues. Switzerland was also affected.

Volcanic ash can do serious damage to aircraft engines, causing planes to crash.

swissinfo.ch and agencies