The papal flight to Rome was one of only 4,000 flights across Europe to operate yesterday as ash continued to ground air traffic across the continent bringing misery to thousands of stranded passengers.
According to the Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the safety of air navigation, nearly 84 per cent of the usual 25,000 flights on a Sunday were cancelled because of airspace restrictions caused by ash from a volcano in Iceland.
Flight bans are expected to remain in force today in around 20 countries and the restrictions could last well into Wednesday as wind patterns are unlikely to change.
Some carriers yesterday conducted test flights to assess the damage caused by ash and reported no obvious damage. Two airlines bodies, ACI Europe and AEA, went as far as to question the kind of restrictions imposed by national air traffic controllers.
The cloud of volcanic ash that has created havoc all over Europe turned Thea Garrett's Eurovision promotional tour into a nightmare, with the singer and her entourage bogged down in Frankfurt since Friday. The singer was in Slovakia promoting her song My Dream before travelling to Germany by car hoping to catch an Air Malta flight back home from Frankfurt.
Peter Busuttil, who is accompanying the singer, told The Times yesterday it was a "stressful" situation.
"This is a perfect but not ideal catch-22 situation. It's stressful because we are in no man's land. We tried to catch a train to Rome but getting out of Frankfurt is impossible," Mr Busuttil said.
To make matters worse, he added, attempts to have Ms Garrett interviewed on German radio Rtl failed because their contact was also stranded in Miami. "Getting a car to Rome is a costly option. We are supposed to go to Amsterdam on Friday for more promotion. We are now stranded here and it is a complete waste of time," Mr Busuttil said.
Winter Moods lead singer Ivan Grech yesterday failed to turn up for the concert at the Valletta Waterfront, where young people met the Pope, after becoming stranded in Dublin. The cloud of ash also forced Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to make an unscheduled stop in Malta on his return trip from Washington DC. He arrived late yesterday and spent a night at the Excelsior Hotel in Floriana.
Air Malta said it was operating additional flights to Rome to ferry people caught up in Malta to mainland Europe. Ryanair cancelled scheduled flights to and from several northern countries until 1 p.m. on Wednesday.