Flights resume in Europe as volcanic ash cloud lifts

Activity at Iceland’s Grimsvotn volcano appears to have stopped and air travel in Germany and across northern Europe is returning to normal after flight disruptions caused by volcanic ash.

While it is too soon to say if the eruption is completely over, the plume of ash from the volcano has almost disappeared, Agence France-Presse reports.

"It's much reduced, but there is still … danger of occasional explosions or a puff coming up," Urdur Gunnarsdottir, a spokeswoman for Iceland's civil crisis management agency, told AFP.

"I don't think we want to pronounce it dead until it's dead," she added.

Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen airports in northern Germany had been closed for several hours Wednesday, but have since reopened. About 700 flights were cancelled in Germany.

German air traffic control said the ash level was “no longer critical,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Air traffic in Norway and Denmark was also been disrupted but flights were expected to resume across the U.K. after some airspace in the north was closed, The Associated Press reports.
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Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England were affected by flight restrictions Tuesday, with some 500 flights cancelled.

Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano began erupting Saturday, sending clouds of ash high into the air.

“The eruption is gradually being diminished and the ash cloud is definitely smaller than it has been so we are pretty optimistic now," Icelandic President Olafur Grimsson told the BBC.

The latest volcanic activity in Iceland has so far not been as disruptive of last year's eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, which grounded planes across northern Europe for five days and stranded some 10 million travelers

The ash particles from Grimsvotn are said to be larger than those from Eyjafjallajokull, and so are falling to the ground more quickly.