Two German airports shut as volcanic cloud drifts

LONDON (Reuters) - Two German airports halted flights on Wednesday as ash from an Icelandic volcano drifted across northern Europe, but traffic across much of the region started to return to normal.

The weekend eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano forced the cancellation of some 500 European flights on Tuesday, with Scotland especially hard hit.

The volcano seems to be losing steam, but the ash plume continues to affect some air travel.

In northern Germany, Hamburg and Bremen airports cancelled takeoffs and landings, and German authorities said Berlin terminals could also face closure from 1000 GMT (11 a.m. British time).

"Currently there is no forecast when the restriction will be lifted," Hamburg airport said on its website.

Grimsvotn erupted on Saturday and smoke belched as high as 20 km into the sky. The eruption is its most powerful since 1873 and stronger than the volcano that caused trouble last year.

In Iceland, however, volcano experts said the eruption was easing.

President Olafur Grimsson told the BBC: "The volcano seems to be calming down. The eruption is gradually being diminished and the ash cloud is definitely smaller than it has been."

While the ash has disrupted travel plans, including the state visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to Britain, it has not created the kind of chaos caused by an Icelandic volcano year when more than 10 million people were hit by a six-day European airspace shutdown. That cost airlines $1.7 billion (1billion pounds).

But the eruption has exposed disarray among the authorities who decide on aviation safety as they try to apply new rules to avoid another mass closure of European airspace.

PATCHWORK

New procedures put the onus on airlines to make judgments on whether it is safe to fly through ash, in coordination with the forecasting authorities and civil aviation bodies.

Highlighting problems, sources told Reuters that a British research plane designed to sample ash remained grounded for a second day in a wrangle over its deployment.

The rules are also not accepted by all, with Germany backing a tougher stance for the sake of safety, aviation sources said.

"The potential for a patchwork of inconsistent state decisions on airspace management still exists," IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani said in a statement.

British airport operator BAA, majority owned by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, warned some flights would continue to be affected.

But it said flights were expected to resume at Glasgow Airport Wednesday morning, and it expected a "fuller programme" of services at Edinburgh.

In Scandinavia, traffic was mostly normal after some disruptions on Tuesday.

Norwegian airport operator Avinor said commercial air traffic would operate normally on Wednesday, including helicopter flights to offshore oil and gas platforms.

Sweden's Swedavia said a number of flights had been cancelled from Gotheburg's Landvetter Airport.

However, Scandinavian Airline SAS, said it had not cancelled any flights in Sweden, though one flight to and from Hamburg from Copenhagen would not depart.

"We expect normal traffic today," SAS spokeswoman Malin Selander said.

She said the airline had received permission from the Swedish Transport to fly in so-called ash 'grey zones', but had not yet done so.

Domestic flights in Finland were operating normally, though two flights to and from northern Germany have been cancelled.

Dutch airline KLM said it would cancel 19 flights on Wednesday to and from Britain, Norway, Sweden and Germany. It expected to operate all other flights as scheduled.

Budget airline Ryanair said it had safely sent two planes into what authorities had deemed high ash zones over Scotland, and criticised "bureaucratic incompetence."

Eurocontrol said the around 500 flights cancelled on Tuesday were out of around 29,000 expected that day.

(Editing by Ralph Boulton)

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