Air traffic in Irish airspace is set to resume on a phased basis from early tomorrow morning it emerged today, although normal operations are not expected to be in place for several days.
In an update this evening, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) said current airspace restrictions would continue until 5am local time. "At that time the IAA expects to reinstate some air traffic services on a phased basis. The IAA stresses that this is not a return to full service. Normal operations are not expected to be in place for up to three or four days."
The authority said it would continue to monitor both volcanic activity and meteorological information and would advise the public on any developments.
It said it was now up to airports and airlines to decide "how best to use this opportunity" and urged passengers to contact their airlines to find out how this will affect their travel plans. A further update is expected from the IAA at 8pm tonight.
Aer Lingus confirmed this evening it will operate a full transatlantic schedule tomorrow and said all flights from Dublin, Cork and Belfast to Spain, Portugal and Italy with a scheduled departure time up to 1pm will operate as scheduled tomorrow. It said it aimed to operate the "majority" of its European schedule after that time. It will confirm the status of flights on its website tomorrow morning.
Late this afternoon, EU transport ministers today agreed to gradually ease restrictions in place in European airspace since an Icelandic volcano started hurling ash into the atmosphere.
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey this evening said he expected restrictions on air travel to be eased over the next few days, with the situation returning “as near to normality as possible” before the weekend.
He said European Transport Ministers authorised a proposal put forward by European aviation control agency Eurocontrol during a teleconference this afternoon.
While a “no-fly zone” will remain in place in the area around the volcanic eruption in Iceland, planes could be allowed to fly if given clearance in a “secondary zone”, which is expected to involve Irish airspace. There will be a third, “no-restriction zone” where planes can fly freely.
“It should have the effect of easing the restrictions in air traffic certainly over the next couple of days and helping to get as near to normality as possible before the weekend,” Mr Dempsey said.
David Murphy, head of the IAA aviation services division, said he was optimistic the situation would dramatically improve tomorrow.
“The good news is that the most recent advice we have from the London Volcano Ash Advisory Centre is that the eruption has virtually ceased with only small amounts of ash and it goes up only to about 6,000ft,” he said.
“If that continues, in other words if the eruption has ceased and remains stopped, then the current ash plume will probably be blown away from the UK and Ireland overnight, by tomorrow night at the latest. There’s a good chance that Ireland and UK airspace, or most of it, will be clear by some time coming into tomorrow evening or at the latest the following morning.”
Earlier, the IAA had extended the ban on flying in Irish airspace until 6pm and warned the restriction on air travel may last until the end of the week.
IAA chief executive Eamonn Brennan had said Ireland was “very much” in the core area of the travel restrictions. “Ireland and the UK are right slap bang in the middle of this thing; from a practical point of view there’s not much we can do about it," he said.
The Icelandic volcano which caused the travel restrictions was emitting 750 metric tons of ash per second over the last five days, Mr Brennan told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
He said while the ash cloud could clear by the end of this week, the same problem could recur. “What we are feeling here is that, although the thing may disperse naturally by Thursday or Friday with the winds, the problem is that the volcano may reoccur again in two weeks’ time - in two weeks’ time we could be facing the same problem.”
Up to last night almost 2,000 flights in and out of Dublin, Cork and Shannon alone had been cancelled, upsetting the travel plans of around 230,000 passengers. That number will increase over the coming days, with around 550 flights involving around 57,000 passengers expected to be cancelled each day from the airports until Irish airspace is reopened.
Ryanair decided yesterday evening to cancel all its inbound and outbound Irish flights, as well as its flights between most other northern and eastern European countries, until 1pm on Wednesday. Its flights from Spain, the Canary and Balearic islands, the south of Italy (including Pisa, Rome, Sardinia and Sicily), Malta and North Africa will continue to operate only on domestic and southbound routes.
Aer Lingus cancelled all flights today, apart from one flight from Washington to Madrid.
Scottish airspace will open from 7am tomorrow. The authorities in Britain said the situation was "dynamic and changing" and it was difficult to forecast beyond 7am tomorrow. It said the latest Met Office advice was that the contaminated area will continue to move south with the possibility that restrictions to airspace above England and Wales, including the London area, may be lifted later on Tuesday.
The National Air Traffic Service said it would provide a further update at about 9pm tonight. "It is now for airports and airlines to decide how best to utilise this opportunity. Passengers should contact their airlines to find out how this will affect their travel plans."
Bus Éireann is putting on extra coaches today to help people trying to travel to UK. Stena Line and Irish Ferries said reported overwhelming demand for services between Britain and Ireland.
A spokeswoman for the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) asked passengers not to go to the airport, even after airspace is reopened, without first checking with their airlines. “The airlines themselves will decide how they want to operate their flights, so we will take our lead from them.”
The Government’s task force on emergency planning has warned that disruption to air travel caused by the ash cloud looks likely to continue in the coming days with no change forecast in Irish weather patterns until Friday.
The task force said Irish embassies and consulates were reporting increased inquiries from citizens stranded overseas due to the volcanic ash plume.
Following its meeting this morning, the task force said that people stranded abroad were being successful in making alternative arrangements to return overland. It said ferry companies still have spare capacity in light of the increasing demand. The task force will meet again tomorrow at 10am.
The Department of Foreign Affairs also reported an increasing number of enquiries to consulates and embassies, which are continuing to provide advice and guidance.
Fine Gael today urged foreign affairs officials to keep overseas Irish embassies open for longer to assist stranded holidaymakers. About 1,000 people trying to return to Ireland have phoned a consular crisis centre in Dublin seeking information.
The party's transport spokesman, Fergus O’Dowd, called on the Government to extend opening hours of Irish embassies and consulates in countries affected by the ash cloud. “This is a unique set of circumstances and it demands an exceptional response,” he said.
Labour Party transport spokesman Tommy Broughan said the safety of air passengers must remain "the key guiding point". But he said that given the scale of the crisis, the Minister for Transport must reassure the travelling public on "what efforts are being made at the highest level across Europe and beyond to address the problem".
Minister for the Environment John Gormley said the travel chaos caused by the ash cloud had been discussed at Cabinet and he was in constant contact with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “It’s a very serious issue for this country, an island state that depends, for our exports and for our tourism, on planes. We hope that we can find a solution to this as quickly as possible,” he said.
Tourism Ireland said it was "keeping the situation under active review". It is liaising with the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport in the south, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland and with NITB and Fáilte Ireland.”
Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland said the island of Ireland is losing about 16,000 visitors for each day of airspace closure, with a corresponding loss of about €9 million per day.
The Naval Service has been requested by the HSE to be prepared to transfer children in need of transplant operations to the UK by sea if required. The LE Róisín has been dispatched to the Irish Sea where she will be on call to dock in Dublin at immediate notice and take on board patients and support staff to the most convenient port in the UK.
Further information for members of the public affected by the restrictions in Ireland is available on the Department of Transport website at www.transport.ie
Additional reporting PA