19/04/2010

Britain's Flight Ban May End Soon

The blanket ban on flying through volcanic ash is to be lifted early tomorrow morning for some airspaces.

Safety regulators have been evaluating the results of a series of test flights to see whether it could be possible to resume at least some passenger services.

Scottish airspace is due to reopen on Tuesday, but flight restrictions at this time will remain in place for most of the UK.

The air traffic control body, Nats, said from 7am on Tuesday Scottish airspace south to a line between Teesside and Blackpool will reopen. It added that mainland Scottish airports would be open.

Nats said restrictions to airspace above England and Wales could be lifted later on Tuesday if the volcanic ash cloud continued to move away.

In a statement, Nats added: "Assuming there are no further significant ash emissions, we are now looking at a continuously improving situation.

"This is a dynamic and changing situation and is therefore difficult to forecast beyond 7am."

The initiative comes with millions of people stranded across the world because of the flight ban which has crippled aviation in Europe.

A statement is expected later this afternoon but the news will come as a massive relief to the thousands of British travellers stranded abroad - although the backlog of flights is likely to take days to clear.

(LB/BMcC)

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