LIVE - Travel Updates (Ireland)

LIVE - Travel Updates

Monday, 19 April 2010 20:00


19.49 Italy will reopen all its airspace from 0600 GMT tomorrow. Northern Italian airports have been closed since Friday.
19.31 Romania has fully reopened its airspace following a closure due to the volcanic ash cloud.
19.03 Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has welcomed the planned resumption of flights in Europe, but cautioned that the situation could change by the hour.
Mr O'Leary, who has cancelled all Ryanair flights in northern Europe and the Baltic states until 1.00pm on Wednesday, said the crisis had shown the need for better information from safety authorities.

'Clearly all the airlines want to get back flying but we have to be cautious, this thing could change on an hour-to-hour basis,' he said.
18.58 Bulgaria has reopened its airspace for flights going to and coming from countries in south Europe and Asia.
Canadian officials have cancelled nine flights out of Saint John's, Newfoundland, the first sign of disrupted to domestic flights in North America.

18.25 Aer Lingus has confirmed that all flights from Dublin, Cork and Belfast to Spain, Portugal and Italy with a scheduled departure time up to 13:00 will operate as scheduled tomorrow, Tuesday 20 April.
Aer Lingus aims to operate the majority of its European schedule post 13:00. The status of flights post 13:00 will be confirmed on aerlingus.com on Tuesday morning.
Transatlantic
Aer Lingus will operate its full transatlantic schedule between Ireland and the US on Tuesday 20 April.
London
All flights from Dublin, Cork, Knock, Shannon and Belfast to London Heathrow and Gatwick with a scheduled departure time up to 13:00, Tuesday 20 April, have been cancelled. Operations on these services post 13:00 remain under review, however we hope to operate the majority of the schedule between Ireland and London for the remainder of the day. The status of flights post 13:00 will be confirmed on aerlingus.com on Tuesday morning.
Aer Lingus Regional
Aer Lingus Regional flights from Dublin and Cork will operate as scheduled tomorrow with the exception of flights to and from Cardiff.
17.52 Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has said EU Transport Ministers have agreed that planes will be allowed to fly if it is considered safe for them to do so.
He said the Irish Aviation Authority will make a decision on when Irish airspace will open again.

17.40 European Union transport ministers have agreed to gradually ease restrictions in place in European airspace.
A source at the Spanish presidency of the EU said an area immediately around the volcano would remain closed and that ministers had proposed the 'progressive and coordinated' opening of airspace in a second zone further from the volcano.

17:19 Air corridors to Paris will open up from 7am Irish time tomorrow to enable airlines to bring back 'the greatest number of passengers possible from abroad.'
17:17 The Irish Ferries Contact Centre at 0818 300 400 is being kept open for telephone reservations until 21:00 tonight
17:07 A statement on the Irish Aviation Authority's website says that the current meeting of EU transport ministers is expected to approve an interim, European-wide response to the airspace restrictions arising from the volcanic ash cloud.

The response will ease restrictions, and this will facilitate the commencement of limited operations from 5am tomorrow, based on ash proliferation assessments.
IAA expects to reinstate some air traffic services on a phased basis from this time. It stressed that this is not a return to full service.

16:54 Reports emerging from a videoconference of EU transport ministers say that officials are working on an agreement to reduce the size of the European no-fly zone.
'There seems to be consensus around creating new zones with a smaller no-fly zone near to the volcano. A second zone would include safety restrictions and checks for aircraft,' an envoy told Reuters.
16:52 Belgian authorities will begin reopening the country's air space on Tuesday morning.
16:34 British air traffic control company Nats will lift restrictions for Northern Ireland, Scotland and part of northern England from 7am tomorrow.

16:28 Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano is emitting between 150,000 and 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per day, a figure placing it in the same emissions league as a small-to-medium European economy, experts said this afternoon.

16:26 Bus Éireann says two additional coaches will run from Cork to London (via Rosslare) tomorrow in addition to the normal Tuesday coach. So far, two of those are fully booked up.
16:20 The Bedroom Community Whale Watching Tour at the National Concert Hall on 21 April has been cancelled.
Eight of the 14 member touring party have been stranded in either New York or Reykjavik.
16:15 Celtic Horizon Tours is organising a temporary overnight coach service to Birmingham and London in conjunction with Irish Ferries.
The overnight coach and ferry service will run direct from Terminal 1 in North Wall, Dublin at 19:00 to both Birmingham (Birmingham Airport) & London (Kilburn Tube station).
The fare from Dublin to Birmingham Airport is €70 one way while the Dublin to London service costs €80.
16:13 Some helpful information for stranded travellers is also available on boards.ie
16:03 Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, is posting regular Twitter updates on www.twitter.com/eurocontrol.
16:02 We've just heard here at the RTÉ online news desk that our boss, who has been stuck in France since last Thursday, has just departed France by boat. Take your time, we say. Take your time!
16:01 The Consumer Council is recommending that air passengers affected by the disruptions keep receipts. They are concerned that people are not being made aware of their rights and are calling passengers to keep their receipts.
15:55 Following is a list of current disruption to European air travel.
AUSTRIA - Airports open as of 0400 GMT Monday.
BELGIUM - Airspace closed until Monday 1800 GMT. Airlines have been allowed to bring planes back to Belgium without passengers or freight.
BOSNIA - Airports open.
BRITAIN - British airspace will remain closed to flights until midnight GMT on Monday at the earliest.
BULGARIA - Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas airports open, airports in northern Bulgaria closed. Transit flights permitted at 8,000 metres (26,250 feet) altitude.
CZECH REPUBLIC - Airspace and airports open as of 1000 GMT on Monday.
DENMARK - Airspace open for flights above 10,800 metres (35,500 feet). Airspace below this height closed all Monday.
ESTONIA - Airspace closed until 1200 GMT Monday.
FINLAND - The main Helsinki-Vantaa airport will open at 1200 GMT for at least eight hours until 2000 GMT. Regional Turku and Tampere-Pirkkala airports open until 2100 GMT
FRANCE - Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and several other southwestern airports will remain open until at least 1300 GMT Monday. Airports north of Nice-Bordeaux line remain closed at least until Tuesday morning. Air France said a test flight from Paris to Toulouse on Sunday had gone without problems; tests continuing.
GERMANY - Airspace will likely remain closed until 0200 CET (0000 GMT).
HUNGARY - Airspace fully open as of 1000 GMT Monday.
IRELAND - Airspace closed until at least midnight.
ITALY - Northern airspace up to 6,700 metres (22,000 feet) re-closed until at least 0600 GMT Tuesday, after briefly opening airspace for two hours on Monday.
LATVIA - Airspace above 6,000 metres (19,700 feet) now open for transit flights, but flights to and from Riga airport not expected to resume on Monday.
LITHUANIA - Airspace open.
LUXEMBOURG - Air space closed until Monday 1800 GMT.
MONTENEGRO - Airports open.
NETHERLANDS - Airspace shut until at least 1200 GMT Monday.
NORWAY - Oslo Gardermoen Airport open for some air traffic. Other parts of the country, such as parts of northern Norway, closed to traffic.
POLAND - Airports closed on Monday. Transit flights in airspace permitted, but not landings and take-offs.
ROMANIA - Main Bucharest airport open from 1200 GMT Monday after two-day closure. May fully reopen airspace on Tuesday.
RUSSIA - All airports open. Aeroflot is flying to the United States via the North Pole.
SERBIA - Airports open.
SLOVAKIA - Eastern airspace open, as is the rest of its airspace for flights above 7,500 metres. Bratislava airport closed.
SLOVENIA - Slovenia expected another cloud of ash to reach its airspace around 1200 GMT Monday. It was then likely to close its airspace again, after opening it on Sunday night.
SPAIN - 17 airports open.
SWEDEN - Airspace open for flights north of a line stretching from the southern city of Gothenburg to Stockholm. Scandinavian Airlines resuming domestic flights in unrestricted airspace as well as flights between Stockholm and Oslo.
SWITZERLAND - Flight ban until at least 0600 GMT Tuesday. No instrument-guided flights will be allowed to land or take off at Swiss airports. Transit permitted at an altitude above 6,400 metres (21,000 feet).
TURKEY - All airports open. Planes flying out of the Black Sea cities of Samsun, Sinop and Zonguldak have been advised not to fly higher than 6,000 metres.
UKRAINE - Kiev's Borispol airport open.

thanks for the constant updates noely, my in laws are stuck in London at the minute

Me neice is in Malaga Was meant to be home on Saturday

hope she has enough money to keep herself going, my in laws are staying with their daughter, so at least accommodation is costing nothing