A cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland that had forced airport closures yesterday in northern Germany blew further north and east, allowing air traffic to resume as experts said the eruption appeared to be winding down.

European air traffic controllers said they expected about 700 flights to be cancelled yesterday but Eurocontrol added that activity from Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano has declined sharply and that traffic in European airspace could return to normal today.

"There were very few eruptions by the volcano over the last six to 12 hours so the volcano is in a reasonably calm state at the moment," said Mr Brian Flynn, head of network operations for Eurocontrol.

"Assuming that continues, we would expect that the European aviation would be able to return to almost a normal situation within the next 24 hours."

Ash clouds forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights over Britain on Tuesday. And yesterday, German air traffic control banned all takeoffs and landings at airports in Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg and Luebeck for several hours, causing hundreds of flights to be cancelled.

Eurocontrol said the ash has reached parts of Russia but has not affected air traffic there. The ash could also drift to Poland but a Polish air traffic control official said no traffic limitations were due.

While experts say particles in the ash could stall jet engines and sandblast plane windows, many in Britain argued the flight bans on Tuesday were a massive overreaction by badly prepared safety regulators.

New regulations in the United Kingdom use Met Office forecasts to place ash clouds into three categories: Low, medium and high.

Currently all airlines are clear to fly through the medium zones that have drifted across much of British airspace in recent days but none have clearance to go through the high density "red zone" that has hit services in Scotland and has been the target of British Airways (BA) and Ryanair test flights.

Mr Willie Walsh, the chief executive of International Airlines Group - formed from the merger of BA and Iberia - said its plane encountered no difficulties on Tuesday.

"We flew in the red zone for about 45 minutes at different altitudes over Scotland" and the north of England, Mr Walsh told BBC radio. "All the filters were removed and will be sent to a laboratory for testing. The simple answer is that we found nothing."

Irish budget airline Ryanair has also challenged the bans, saying on Tuesday it had sent its own aircraft into Scottish airspace and found no ash in the atmosphere.
British Transport Secretary Philip Hammond defended the new regulations, saying it was possible for different aircraft to encounter varying levels of ash in the same zone.
German Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer also insisted that precautions are justified and said that the authorities were better prepared after the Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption last year.

Story Published By:-
http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC110526-0000386/Air-traffic-over-Europe-could-return-to-normal-by-today