Will the Iceland Volcano Eruption Affect Your Flights?

After the new volcanic eruption in Iceland, the volcanic ash cloud is moving towards the UK and mainland Europe from Iceland, and it is expected to reach the eastern coast of Ireland and northern Russia by the end of the Monday.

Airspace over Iceland and Reykjavik Airport are expected to remain closed for the rest of Monday, and transatlantic flights re-routed south. So will it be a repeat of what happened in April of last year, when a similar eruption severely affected the flights over most of the Europe.

Volcano Grimsvoetn in eastern Iceland began erupting late on Saturday, sending huge amounts of smoke and ash 12 miles high. By Sunday, it had spread to the capital Reykjavik, nearly 250Km to the west, and all of Iceland’s airspace was closed and the transatlantic flights between Europe and Americas have been re-routed south.

Grimsvoetn is the country’s biggest volcano, but volcanologists said that, the eruption will not cause a crisis as severe as the last April’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano’s eruption. According to Iceland’s Meteorological Office they don’t expect this will have the same effect as Eyjafjoell volcano because the ash is not as fine. The fine ash makes the flight of jet planes impossible as they cause the failure of its jet engines.

So till now the news are good, your flight from UK or the mainland Europe will not be affected by this recent eruption.