By Ari Sharp
THOUSANDS of Australians whose travel plans have been disrupted are likely to wait at least another day for skies over Europe to clear after the eruption of the volcano in Iceland.
Flights to and from Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands are not expected to resume until at least tomorrow. All flights scheduled from Australia to Europe were cancelled yesterday and nearly 2000 Qantas passengers were left stranded in Asia.
Casting a dark cloud ... volcanic smoke and steam hang over Iceland after the second eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in a month. Ash forced the closure of British airports.Credit: AP
With little prospect of departures today and a need to clear the backlog once flights do resume, airlines are urging travellers on Europe-bound flights in the next few days to not head to the airport until they receive confirmation their flights will be departing.
Eight European countries closed their airspace on Thursday after the eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier sent fine rock particles 11 kilometres in the air and caused clouds of ash in the upper atmosphere. Qantas said its four Europe-bound flights yesterday had not left Australia and five flights were grounded in Asia. Three planes, with nearly 1000 passengers, remained in Singapore while separate flights, each with about 350 passengers, were grounded in Bangkok and Hong Kong.
The airline is asking passengers whether they want to remain where they are and wait for onward flights, return to Australia, or make other arrangements.
Qantas said it had scrambled to bring forward the departure of two flights from London before the extent of the closures became clear, but two flights yesterday had been cancelled.
Yesterday, a Qantas spokesman, David Epstein, said it could be two days before normal flights resumed. For passengers bound for Asia on flights that would normally continue to Europe, Qantas yesterday scheduled a special flight from Sydney to Singapore via Melbourne.
Qantas has agreed to provide a full fare waiver for passengers on flights cancelled due to the cloud of volcanic ash.