John
04-17-2010, 09:08 AM
Limited domestic flights may be able to take off from Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to the National Air Traffic Service.
It said: "Current forecasts show that the situation is worsening throughout Saturday.
"We are continuing to look for windows of opportunity to handle individual flights in UK controlled airspace."
Nats said its next update on flight restrictions will be at about 9am.
Sky's Michelle May at Manchester airport said even if flights do get underway this weekend it will be a long time before travel is back to normal.
"Once it does all reopen, it's going to be up to two weeks before major airports are functioning properly," she said.
"All the crews and planes are in the wrong places because they haven't been able to get where they need to be."
Russell Craig, a spokesman for the airport, said they were disappointed for passengers.
"This is such a strange situation. On Thursday we thought the deadlines were realistic, but now we are entirely reliant on information from the Met Office and air traffic control," he said.
"We don't want to create false hope. The only thing we can say with certainty is that there will be no flights between now and 7pm."
"Manchester is a holiday airport which means the weekend period is our busiest.
"It is a huge backlog. But rest assured we will work very hard to get people where they need to be."
The cloud from an Icelandic volcano has prevented many flights from entering or leaving the UK since noon on Thursday - at a huge cost to the industry.
Neil Morris, from Deloitte's aviation team, said: "We estimate that the cost to British and Irish scheduled airlines from the closure of British airspace is likely to be between £26m and £28m per day.
"After two days of airspace lockdown due to a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland currently floating above northern Europe, the estimated cost to the airlines so far is at least £52m."
In a statement on its website, British Airways said all flights in and out of London today would be cancelled.
Budget carrier Ryanair said it had halted all scheduled flights to and from the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, northern France, northern Germany, Poland and the Baltic States until 1pm on Monday.
Ireland has also closed its airspace until at least 5pm.
It said: "Current forecasts show that the situation is worsening throughout Saturday.
"We are continuing to look for windows of opportunity to handle individual flights in UK controlled airspace."
Nats said its next update on flight restrictions will be at about 9am.
Sky's Michelle May at Manchester airport said even if flights do get underway this weekend it will be a long time before travel is back to normal.
"Once it does all reopen, it's going to be up to two weeks before major airports are functioning properly," she said.
"All the crews and planes are in the wrong places because they haven't been able to get where they need to be."
Russell Craig, a spokesman for the airport, said they were disappointed for passengers.
"This is such a strange situation. On Thursday we thought the deadlines were realistic, but now we are entirely reliant on information from the Met Office and air traffic control," he said.
"We don't want to create false hope. The only thing we can say with certainty is that there will be no flights between now and 7pm."
"Manchester is a holiday airport which means the weekend period is our busiest.
"It is a huge backlog. But rest assured we will work very hard to get people where they need to be."
The cloud from an Icelandic volcano has prevented many flights from entering or leaving the UK since noon on Thursday - at a huge cost to the industry.
Neil Morris, from Deloitte's aviation team, said: "We estimate that the cost to British and Irish scheduled airlines from the closure of British airspace is likely to be between £26m and £28m per day.
"After two days of airspace lockdown due to a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland currently floating above northern Europe, the estimated cost to the airlines so far is at least £52m."
In a statement on its website, British Airways said all flights in and out of London today would be cancelled.
Budget carrier Ryanair said it had halted all scheduled flights to and from the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, northern France, northern Germany, Poland and the Baltic States until 1pm on Monday.
Ireland has also closed its airspace until at least 5pm.