New Delhi:
After UK's busiest airports - Gatwick and Heathrow - reopened today, following the resurfacing of the Icelandic volcano ash clouds, Air India announced they will operate one flight (Mumbai-London) on Tuesday at 2:20 am with a 777-400 jumbo jet aircraft to accommodate both Sunday and Monday's bookings.
With drifting volcanic ash from Iceland forcing closure of two European airports early Monday morning, Kingfisher Airlines had cancelled all its flights to London while Air India rescheduled its Mumbai-London flight.
The airspace over Heathrow was ordered closed from 1 am until 7 am London time, the British National Air Traffic Control Services, or NATS, said in a statement posted on its Web site Sunday night. The restrictions also included Gatwick and London City airports and all airfields in Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland.
The shutdowns come a month after an ash cloud disrupted most air travel in Europe for nearly a week, forcing the cancellation of thousands flights, stranding passengers, damaging the continent's economy and raising questions about the inconsistent oversight of Europe's air traffic.
The volcano causing the clouds, named Eyjafjallajokull, had been dormant for nearly two centuries before gently erupting March 20, 2010. The Icelandic Meteorological Office and Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland said on Sunday that it had detected three small earthquakes beneath the volcano and "unusually" high lightning activity in the ash plume.
With drifting volcanic ash from Iceland forcing closure of two European airports early Monday morning, Kingfisher Airlines had cancelled all its flights to London while Air India rescheduled its Mumbai-London flight.
The airspace over Heathrow was ordered closed from 1 am until 7 am London time, the British National Air Traffic Control Services, or NATS, said in a statement posted on its Web site Sunday night. The restrictions also included Gatwick and London City airports and all airfields in Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland.
The shutdowns come a month after an ash cloud disrupted most air travel in Europe for nearly a week, forcing the cancellation of thousands flights, stranding passengers, damaging the continent's economy and raising questions about the inconsistent oversight of Europe's air traffic.
The volcano causing the clouds, named Eyjafjallajokull, had been dormant for nearly two centuries before gently erupting March 20, 2010. The Icelandic Meteorological Office and Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland said on Sunday that it had detected three small earthquakes beneath the volcano and "unusually" high lightning activity in the ash plume.
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