IRISH AIRSPACE will reopen on a limited basis from this morning, but the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has warned it may take “several days” before full airline operations resume.
Airspace restrictions in Ireland will be lifted at 5am today when the IAA expects to reinstate some air traffic services on a phased basis, but it stressed this was not a return to full service. It was now up to airports and airlines to decide how best to use this opportunity, the IAA said.
The cloud of ash from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland has forced the cancellation of over 60,000 flights across Europe since it erupted last Wednesday.
Following a teleconference yesterday, EU transport ministers reached a deal to gradually reopen European airspace. The ministers divided Europe’s airspace into open, closed and restricted zones.
Roughly 70 per cent of flights in European airspace were cancelled yesterday. The relaxation of the rules may see up to 45 per cent of flights run as scheduled today, and up to 60 per cent may run tomorrow, aviation body Eurocontrol said.
Aer Lingus said last night it hoped to run most scheduled services to Europe and all services to North America today. Flights to London Heathrow and Gatwick with a scheduled departure time up to 1pm today have been cancelled, but the airline hopes to operate “the majority of the schedule between Ireland and London for the remainder of the day”.
All Ryanair flights to and from northern Europe remain cancelled until tomorrow at 1pm.
The aviation division at Met Éireann said prevailing meteorological conditions meant skies could clear sooner than originally thought. It predicted a significant drop in the ash content over Ireland today.
However, Bo Redeborn, director of air traffic management strategies at Eurocontrol, said the UK, Ireland, the Benelux countries and western Germany were likely to remain among the countries worst affected by the ash cloud.
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said he expected restrictions to be eased over the next few days, with the situation returning “as near to normality as possible” before the weekend.He said tests and analysis of data would continue, and aircraft “won’t be allowed up if there’s any danger at all to passengers”.
EU transport commissioner Siim Kallas also sought to reassure passengers safety would not be compromised. “This is not a question of reducing safety but to have more sophisticated risk analysis.”
Meanwhile, Tourism Ireland said the island of Ireland was losing about 16,000 overseas visitors for each day that airspace was closed.