A volcanic ash cloud has caused new air travel misery in Europe – closing Spanish airports and cancelling dozens of flights to and from Portugal.
Spanish air traffic authority Aena announced 15 closures in northern Spain because of the plume from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano.
The shutdown at Bilbao, San Sebastian, Vitoria, Saragossa, Pamplona, La Rioja, Santiago de Compostela, La Coruna, Vigo, Asturies, Santander, Burgos, Leon, Valladolid and Salamanca was set to last until at least 4pm GMT (5pm BST).
In Portugal, 104 flights were cancelled at airports in Porto, Lisbon and Faro, the Portuguese air traffic authority ANA said.
Stansted airport saw 22 Ryanair services to numerous destinations, including the Canary Islands, Spain and Portugal, cancelled, along with three easyJet flights.
At Gatwick, three easyJet services to Portugal were grounded, while another three Ryanair flights to Alicante and Madrid were cancelled.
A spokesman for Heathrow Airport said that disruption there was minimal, with only a small number of flights going to La Coruna affected.
Transatlantic services suffered delays of 10 to 15 minutes to allow time to fly around the higher level ash cloud, he said.
Ryanair put details of cancelled flights on its website including services from East Midlands, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Liverpool.
It advised customers to check their flight status before travelling to the airport.
Sky weather presenter Sarah Pennock said: “Currently the main ash cloud is sitting to the south of Iceland in the northeast Atlantic.
“Overnight Friday into Saturday, a thin band of ash cloud has sunk eastwards across northern Portugal and northwest Spain.”
In April, the cloud caused Europe’s biggest aerial shutdown since World War II. More than 100,000 flights were cancelled and eight million passengers affected.
Flights to and from some UK and Irish airports were also set to face more disruption.
Pennock said: “We currently have a northeasterly wind flow across Britain. Whilst the winds will ease on Sunday, the airflow will not change.
“But on Monday we will see a significant wind direction change with a cold strong northerly flow which again could cause problems for next weeks air travellers, particularly those flying from northern and western UK airports in Scotland and Ireland.
“The wind will swing back to more of an easterly flow on Wednesday, which would ease any further ash away from Britain into the Atlantic.”
Sweeping closures of European airspace last month have cost airlines more than a billion euros in revenues.
Assessments by scientists led to a decision to restrict closures to areas of higher ash concentration, after it was found that lower concentrations were not damaging aircraft engines.
