Eurocontrol said this morning that it expects between 8,000-9,000 flights to take place today in European airspace. On a normal Monday, they would expect 28,000.

They said that at the current time, air traffic control services are not being provided to civil aircraft in the major part of European airspace. This includes Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, parts of France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, northern Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland, parts of Ukraine and the UK.

In some of these areas the upper airspace has been made available, depending on the observed and forecasted area of possible ash contamination. However, it is difficult to access this airspace as in most cases the surrounding area is not available for flights.

They concluded by saying that approximately 30% of the total number of flights are expected to take place today in Europe, representing 50% of the total continent area. Southern Europe – including Portugal, Spain, parts of Italy and France, the Balkan area, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, as well as parts of northern Europe (Norway and parts of Sweden) are currently open to civil traffic.

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