Bristol Airport passengers face fresh misery as ash cloud grounds flights
PASSENGERS at Bristol Airport faced another weekend of disruption as a cloud of volcanic ash moved over Europe.
Flights to Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Italy, Switzerland, France, Northern Ireland and northern England were cancelled as a number of airports in those destinations were closed.
Planes due to fly to Valencia, Alicante, Malaga and Faro were among those affected throughout Saturday.
And as of 10pm last night there were 14 departures cancelled from the day's programme of 150 flights, as well as 16 arrivals.
There were cancellations of flights to Pisa, Nice, Lisbon, Bordeaux, Paphos, Geneva, Paris, Porto, Venice, Faro, Malaga, Belfast and Newcastle, as well as flights from many of those destinations, and Palma in Majorca and Manchester.
Some flights from Bristol were also cancelled last week as the reappearance of the ash resulted in the closure of airports in parts of Scotland and Ireland.
A total of 19 Spanish airports were closed, with airline operators Ryanair and easyJet among those forced to ground planes from Bristol.
Both easyJet and Ryanair were offering flight transfers and refunds.
Although the ash cloud over Europe is expected to disperse over the next few days, it is thought the disruption could continue this week if northerly winds bring ash over western Scotland and Ireland.
And there are fears that transatlantic flights from Bristol could be delayed in the early part of the week.
Speaking last night, James Gore, a spokesman for Bristol International Airport, said: "This disruption is due to high concentration of ash cloud over northern Spain, Portugal, northern France, Austria and Italy.
"It is expected to clear by 6am tomorrow, and UK airspace remains open.
"Some delays are possible on transatlantic flights over the next couple of days, otherwise flights are operating as normal. However, our advice remains to check the latest information with airlines, as the situation remains dynamic."
Renewed activity in the Eyjafjallajokull volcano sent ash up to heights of between 20,000ft and 30,000ft last week, according to the Met Office.
Forecaster Victoria Kettley, from MeteoGroup, said: "It looks as if Ireland and western Scotland could be affected. The wind is northerly rather than north-westerly so it will not bring the ash right across the UK."
On Wednesday, an area of low pressure over Iceland is expected to take the ash away from the UK.
Comments
by MendipMan, Wurzel Country
Monday, May 10 2010, 12:26PM
“Saturday saw 24 flights cancelled - 18 by Ryanair and six by easyJet.
Yet on Saturday easyJet and Thomson flew to such places as Alicante and Reus that Ryanair cancelled.
On Sunday the 30 cancellations were mainly down to easyJet with 24, plus six from Ryanair.
On Sunday easyJet took an early decision to cancel numerous flights from its UK airports to many Continental airports.
This left some passengers scratching their heads because, for example, the Bristol/Paris Cdg easyJet flight was axed whereas other airlines flew from Cdg to UK airports througout the day including Air France into Bristol yesterday evening.
easyJet also cancelled its Faro and Palma flights yesterday evening but Ryanair flew to those places around the same time.
It seems that Ryanair and easyJet take early decisions each day about which airports and areas to avoid for the rest of that day, and then go in for blanket cancellations, whereas other airlines appear to make decisions based on individual flights at the time.
Both have their merits and disadvantages but what is particularly confusing is easyJet and Ryanair apparently using different criteria on which they base decisions to blanket cancel flights - as instanced at Bristol this weekend.
The Bristol Airport website is showing all flights to Portugal cancelled today: two to Faro (Ryanair and easyJet); and one each by easyJet to Lisbon and Funchal.
The Thomson charter flight from Exeter to Funchal this morning went ahead but has had to divert to Las Palmas in the Canaries because of the situation at Funchal. All this shows what a tricky decision airlines have in their flight cancellation policies.”