Britain's air travel nightmare worsened last night as the Civil Aviation Authority extended its no-fly zone south to include airports in Birmingham and Norwich.
London's main airports remained open but an ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano meant restrictions were in place over the Midlands, northern England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A statement on the Nats website said: "For the period 1900 today (local time) until 0100 tomorrow (today) London's main airports will still be clear of the no-fly zone imposed by the CAA due to the high density volcanic ash cloud.
"The ash cloud continues to change shape and move further south to just north of Oxford during this period.
"This brings Birmingham and Norwich inside the no-fly zone in addition to those airports already affected.
"The northerly extent of the no-fly zone in England now includes Teesside, stopping just short of Newcastle, and tracking north west in a line just north of Carlisle, which remains in the no-fly zone.
"Airports inside the no-fly zone in England and Wales now include Teesside, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, Blackpool, Ronaldsway, Caernarfon, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Doncaster, Norwich, Birmingham and East Midlands.
"In Scotland the no-fly zone includes the Western Isles, Campbeltown, Prestwick and Oban.
"All airports in Northern Ireland remain inside the no-fly zone during this period."
Airports including Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds Bradford, East Midlands, Carlisle, Doncaster and Humberside were closed at 1 p.m. yesterday.
Several Scottish airports, including Prestwick, were also shut along with all airports in Northern Ireland.
Flights in and out of Dublin are also grounded until at least 9 a.m. tomorrow and other Irish airports have also been closed by the cloud.
The Department of Transport has warned there may be restrictions across different parts of the UK until tomorrow when a change in wind direction is expected to blow the ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano away from Britain.
British Airways' problems are expected to continue however with staff planning strike action from tomorrow.
Sir Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic, said: "The closing of Manchester airspace once again is beyond a joke.
"All the test flights by airlines, aircraft and engine manufacturers have shown no evidence that airlines could not continue to fly completely safety.
"It is obviously dangerous to fly through the mouth of a volcano as has been demonstrated time and time again on television by what happened to the BA plane. However the volcano is hundreds of miles away from the UK.
"Over a thousand flights took off from France last week in similar conditions to that which exist in Manchester today without encountering any problems or showing any levels of ash concentration.
"We need strong leadership to intervene to avoid doing further unnecessary damage to the UK economy and lives of travellers."
A spokesman for British Airways said it believed airlines should take the decision whether or not it was safe to fly, describing the current approach as "overly restrictive" and "not justified".
"The approach the airspace authorities have taken in relation to volcanic ash remains overly restrictive and not justified on safety grounds," he said.
"While we welcome the steps that have been taken since mid-April to moderate the restrictions, it is clear there is too much reliance on the theoretical model of ash spread produced by a single body: the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.