New ash cloud floating towards Europe

Just when you thought it might be getting safe to fly, a new ash cloud is developing over Iceland and drifting towards Europe.

Scotland is opening its airspace for the first time in six days this morning. Some airports in Europe are doing the same, but the situation is changing and airspace could be closed again within hours aviation experts have said.

The schedule at Malta International Airport shows all flights from Europe this morning cancelled except for services from Rome, Catania and Spanish airports. 434 flights to and from Malta have been cancelled since Thursday. Hundreds of Maltese remain stranded abroad, many of them in London and Brussels. In Malta, departing tourists have ended up back in their hotels.

Two British women who had been on holiday in Malta told their story to Sky News this morning.

They had been due to return to the UK last Thursday but their flight was cancelled. Luckly, their friends in Malta took them in and they were pinned to Sky News, watching developments. They were booked on a flight to Manchester, but when they got to the airport, they were told that was cancelled. They were then booked on flights to Amsterdam and Marseille which were also cancelled.

Eventually, they said, then followed the Pope out of Malta on Sunday on a flight to Rome, from where they took long train and bus journeys to the UK, where they arrived this morning, tired, but smiling and grateful for the help they were given in Malta.

London airports, which had been due to open in the afternoon, are expected to remain closed all day.

"The volcano eruption in Iceland has strengthened and a new as cloud is spreading south and east towards the UK," NATS, Britain's National Air Traffic Services, said in an overnight statement.

"This demonstrates the dynamic and rapidly changing conditions in which we are working."

EU Transport Commission Siim Kallas said yesterday that the EU would split European airspace into areas where aircraft could fly or not, easing days of disruption for millions of passengers. A few flights left Amsterdam and Frankfurt late last night.

"I'm so happy," said one man with tears in his eyes as he ran for his flight from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, one of three bound for New York, Shanghai and Dubai with almost 800 passengers on board.

Dutch Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings promised that the Netherlands was "taking a lead" in getting Europe moving, but said its airspace could be closed again if ash levels rose. T.

Kallas said the area immediately around the volcano will remain closed but flights may be permitted in a wider zone with a lower concentration of ash, subject to local assessments and scientific advice..

Airlines had declared numerous test flights problem-free over the past days, but experts disagree over how to measure the ash and who should decide it is safe to fly. A British Airways jet lost power in all four engines after flying through an ash cloud above the Indian Ocean in 1982.

France said it was reopening some airports to create air corridors to Paris. North Italian airspace was due to open at 8 a.m.

Industry losses worldwide for passenger airlines and cargo companies could reach as much as $3 billion from the cloud, Helane Becker, an analyst with Jesup & Lamont Securities, told Reuters Insider on Monday. For U.S. airlines, she estimated the impact at $400 million to $600 million.

Firms dependent on fast air freight were feeling the strain.

Kenya's flower exporters, which account for a third of EU imports, said they were losing up to $2 million a day.

Disruption extended far into Asia.

South Korea's Incheon International Airport, the world's fourth-busiest cargo handler in 2008, suffered 3,216 tonnes of lost shipments to Europe from April 16-19, the country's customs agency says.

Twenty inbound and 25 outbound cargo flights had been cancelled. Among those suffering were computer chip and electronics suppliers such as Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor.

Japan Airlines said it had cancelled 55 European flights, affecting 14,277 passengers. All Nippon Airways (ANA) has cancelled 33 flights, affecting about 8,500.

SHOWERS, HAMBURGERS, BUS TOURS

Tokyo's Narita airport offered stranded passengers free showers, hamburgers, access to rest areas and bus tours of the city. About 140 passengers spent last night at the airport.

The China Daily said the bar on flights to Europe remained in effect and quoted a civil aviation spokeswoman as saying that "the situation might last for a few more days".

It also reported European executives might be unable to attend a series of conventions and exhibitions, including the Beijing auto show that opens with a media day on Friday.

"I don't know how many of the European auto giants will finally show up on the media day," the paper quoted Zhang Hengjie, a manager at the exhibition centre, as saying.

In Singapore, a hub for travel throughout Asia, France's ambassador urged French residents of the island state to take in compatriots stranded at the airport.

Millions of people have had travel disrupted or been stranded and forced to make long, expensive attempts to reach home by road, rail and sea, as well as missing days at work and school at the end of the busy Easter holiday season.

British businessman Chris Thomas, trying to get home from Los Angeles since Thursday, flew to Mexico City and then aimed to fly to Madrid and spend $2,000 to rent a car for the 14-hour drive to Paris. He was booked on the Eurostar Channel tunnel train to London, and then planned to drive four hours to Wales.

"It's all a bit crazy but you have to err on the side of caution," Thomas said. "Nobody wants to be on the first plane to go down in a volcanic cloud."

In sport, soccer's European Cup holders Barcelona set off on a two-day road trip of nearly 1,000 km (620 miles) on Sunday to play Inter in a Champions League semi-final today.

Businesses have had to find alternative ways of operating. Communications provider Cisco Systems said companies were turning to videoconferencing to connect executives.

Britain was deploying three navy ships, including an aircraft carrier, to bring its citizens home from continental Europe. The British travel agents' association ABTA estimated 150,000 Britons were stranded abroad. Washington said it was trying to help 40,000 Americans stuck in Britain.