Ash disrupts British airports again

Thousands of airline passengers travelling to and from Britain on Monday have faced
severe disruptions after a volcanic ash cloud played havoc with flight schedules.
London's busy Heathrow and Gatwick airports, along with several others across
Britain, were forced to ground flights on Sunday night as the Icelandic ash cloud
spread over southern England.
However, while both London airports managed to allow some flights to operate from
7am local time on Monday (1600 AEST), passengers were warned only limited services
would be in place.
Authorities were restricting arrivals at Heathrow, Europe's busiest international
airport, to just 30 an hour while Gatwick banned arrivals until 1pm local time (2200
AEST) but was allowing some planes to take off.
Several airports in Scotland, including Edinburgh and Aberdeen, were also closed,
along with others in Northern Ireland.
The disruption, which will have major knock-on effects for passengers trying to
reach the UK from overseas, is expected to last until at least Tuesday when a change
of wind direction should help the Eyjafjallajokull volcano ash cloud blow clear of
the UK.
But some passengers could face further disruption well into the week if British
Airways cabin crew go ahead with plans for a five-day strike.
BA staff are due to walk off the job from Tuesday if last-ditch talks between the
government, airline and union on Monday fail to resolve the long-running dispute
over pay and conditions.
Meanwhile, BA and its rival Virgin Atlantic have criticised the latest decision to
introduce no-fly zones over the UK because of the ash cloud.
They argued that test flights carried out by airlines showed no evidence that planes
could not continue to fly safely and that grounding flights was unjustified.
Britain's air safety body NATS said the ash cloud was stretching from southern
England to Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Shetland Isles.
"As a result, no-fly zones have been imposed by the Civil Aviation Authority in
these areas, for the period 7am until 1pm.
"Airports within the no-fly zones include all those in Northern Ireland, Ronaldsway,
Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness and Northern Scotland.
"Cardiff, Swansea, Bristol and Farnborough are also in the no-fly zone.
"Heathrow and Gatwick airports will be clear of the no-fly zone, however
restrictions will have to be applied due to their close proximity to the no-fly
zone, particularly affecting Gatwick inbounds."