Flights to and from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport have been cancelled at least until 14:00 Dutch time due to high concentrations of volcanic ash from the Icelandic Eyjafjallajökull volcano.
The flight ban began at 6:00 this morning. Schiphol Airport expects around 500 flights to be cancelled. Around 60,000 passengers will be affected, including passengers on transfer flights.
No planes will depart from Groningen Airport Eelde in the north of the Netherlands. Other Dutch airports will remain open.
The ash cloud is expected to travel inland. Dutch air traffic controllers hope to be able to give more information later. Flights from the east may be diverted to Maastrict and Eindhoven airport.
The British airports Heathrow, Gatwick and London city also closed last night due to the ash cloud. Here take off resumed at 8:00 Dutch time. Heathrow is Europe’s busiest airport.
