Europe-bound flights from India grounded

Flights to and from European countries will be severely disrupted because of drifting ash being spewed from a volcano in Iceland.

Air India has cancelled all its eight flights to North America, the United Kingdom and Europe scheduled for Saturday. Jet Airways has cancelled all its flights to the U.K. and North America via Brussels. Kingfisher too has cancelled its flights to the U.K.

NATS, the U.K.'s leading air navigation service provider, issued an advisory, asking airlines not to operate to the U.K. as the cloud of volcanic ash drifted further. Eurocontrol, Europe's inter-governmental air control agency, has also issued a similar advisory. Hundreds of thousands of travellers are stranded at European airports following large scale cancellations of flights operating to the U.K, Europe and North America via the trans-Atlantic route.

According to the Eurocontrol, the airspace in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Ireland, Sweden and the U.K. has been “zero rated” and closed.

The NATS advisory says the restrictions will remain in place in U.K.-controlled airspace till Saturday. By all indications, week-end flights to and from European airports will remain largely cancelled.