Flights to and from Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland have been cancelled as a result of another volcanic ash cloud from Iceland.

On Tuesday, airports in these regions also closed for a number of hours due to the high concentrations of volcanic ash in the atmosphere.

The aviation authorities have not indicated whether the disruption will spread to airports further south in England. The British Civil Aviation Authority hopes the flight ban can be lifted on Thursday as the cloud is predicted to float west across the Atlantic Ocean. Transatlantic flights over Ireland and Great Britain are not affected as planes on long haul flights fly at such high altitudes, they are above the ash cloud.

Eyjafjallajökull
In mid-April, thousands of flights were disrupted for several days, stranding tens of thousands of travellers throughout the world, as airspace over north-west Europe was closed after the Icelandic Eyjafjallajökull volcano emitted a huge cloud of volcanic ash. They only reopened region by region after emergency talks between European governments, airlines and regulators.

Ironically, the latest disruption prevented Irish Transport Minister Noel Dempsey from attending a European Union meeting on Tuesday about last month’s shutdown because of the latest disruption.

Complaints
Meanwhile, the European Union has put together a complaints package to help passengers affected by the disruption. It informs passengers of their rights and contains a standard complaints letter, contact data for all airlines and other practical information.

European Commissioner for Consumer Protection John Dalli points out that European consumer rights also apply in exceptional circumstances. He has called on airline passengers not to hesitate to exercise their rights.

The package is available on the internet.

The European Consumer Centre Network, which put the package together, dealt with 20,000 complaints concerning transport in 2009. Over 75 percent of them were about air travel. During the last bout of air travel disruption, complaints increased sevenfold.