London, April 19: Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday morning announced plans to use Navy ships to repatriate British travellers stranded due to volcanic eruption in Iceland.

However, there is possibility that restrictions to airspace above England and Wales, including the London area, may be lifted later on Tuesday. The ban on flights in Scotland and a few parts of north England will be lifted at 7 am.
The decision on lifting the ban will be taken at the emergency video conference meeting of European Union transport ministers, hosted by Spain, late on Monday afternoon. European airlines, which have been running test flights since Friday, on Monday urged the aviation authorities to open up the airspace, which was closed over northern and western Europe on the fifth day on Monday. However, the situation seems to be easing now. “The volcanic eruption has reduced and the volcano is not currently emitting ash to altitudes that will affect the UK. Assuming there are no further significant ash emissions we are now looking at a continuously improving situation,” Britain’s air traffic services said on Monday afternoon.
Sixty-three thousand flights have been cancelled since Thursday and some 6.8 million passengers have been affected globally till now. The restrictions currently in place across UK-controlled airspace will remain in place until 7 am on Tuesday and from that time, Scottish airspace will be open, and south to a line between Teesside and Blackpool, National Air Traffic Service said.
European airlines, including British Airways, have asked the European Union and national governments for financial compensation for the closure of airspace. “There is a precedent for this to happen as compensation was paid after the closure of US airspace following the terrorist events of 9/11 and clearly the impact of the current situation is more considerable,” BA chief executive Willie Walsh said on Monday.
British Airways flew a 2 hour 46 minute test flight on Sunday night. Mr Walsh, a former pilot, was on board. “We welcome the EU’s initiative to address the economic consequences of the airspace closure on the air travel industry and the wider European economy. We are also in touch with the UK government which has set up a group to work on this issue as it recognises the impact on airlines and the contribution that aviation makes to the British economy,” Mr Walsh added.
On Monday, air traffic was totally closed in the major part of European airspace, including 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, Eurocontrol said on Monday.
Eurocontrol said that 8,000-9,000 flights would operate in southern Europe including Portugal, Spain, parts of Italy and France, the Balkan area, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. Norway and parts of Sweden are currently open to air traffic.
 

AGE CORRESPONDENT