Air services from India to London were impacted today, as Heathrow airport in London was closed for seven hours. Kingfisher Airlines and Air India cancelled their flights to the region. Air India resumed operations later during the day. Jet, however, operated all its flights to the region.
The latest cancellations came as black clouds shut other major airports in Europe, including Schipol and Rottredam in Holland, and Gatwick and London as well as flights to and from Ireland and Scotland.
Kingfisher cancelled its flights to and from London Heathrow today. The national carrier, however, after cancelling one flight each from Delhi and Mumbai to London earlier during the day resumed operations and will operate flights to the region tomorrow.
“We operated our Amritsar-London-Toronto flight later during the day and will operate with a bigger aircraft from Mumbai to ferry the stranded passengers,” said an Air India spokesperson.
Kingfisher has also decided to operate flights tomorrow. “The cancellation was for today and as of now flights scheduled will operate,” said an airline spokesperson.
Around 1,000 out of 28,000 flights, which operate in Europe every day, were disrupted. This is the second time in a month’s time that the European air space was closed.
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Meanwhile, German authorities flew two test flights to measure the ash cloud — one by the German Aerospace Centre and the other by Lufthansa.
Europe’s skies became no-fly zone for up to a week in April following the eruption of Eyjafjoell volcano in Iceland. This led to grounding of more than 1,00,000 flights and an estimated 10 million travellers worldwide. The shutdown cost airlines more than $2 billion.