Iceland Volcano halts air travel in Europe

Canadian flyers headed to London's Heathrow Airport will have flights cancelled or delayed because of ash and debris in the air from a volcano that erupted in Iceland.

"Air Canada is monitoring the situation closely," the Air Canada website says, noting, "Flights may be impacted by volcanic activity." The advisory affects both Air Canada and Jazz flights. Affected destinations include London, England; Frankfurt and Munich, Germany; and Paris, France.

Cancellations and delays will likely be extended through Friday and Saturday as well, according to the Air Canada website.

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said the status of flights to Europe could change from hour to hour because of the plume of ash, so travellers should keep their eyes on the website for updates.

He said the ash hadn't affected flights to any other European destinations, but that could also change.

"It depends where this plume goes," Fitzpatrick said. "It's all going to depend on the way the wind blows."

Air Transat said one of its planes landed in Glasgow, Scotland, Thursday morning but was then grounded. Spokesman Jacques Bouchard said flights to France are also being affected, but they don't have any flights there for a few days.

"We have a contingency plan should there be a long period of no flying," Bouchard said, adding they're making sure there's as little impact on travellers as possible.

England, Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Finland all closed their airports Thursday after a plume of ash from the Icelandic volcano affected the air space and made it unsafe to fly. The ash limits visibility and particles can pose a threat to planes if they enter an aircraft's engines.

London's Heathrow Airport was shut down Thursday around noon local time, leaving thousands of travellers stranded.

Britain's major airports have extended the shut-down to Friday afternoon, Reuters reports.

However, some flights from Northern Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland to and from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Prestwick may be allowed to fly, according to National Air Traffic Services.

The volcano, located under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, erupted Wednesday for the second time in a month. Wednesday's eruption caused flooding, forcing hundreds of Icelanders to evacuate their homes.

The Daily Mail newspaper in England reports weather forecasters say it could take between 24 and 36 hours for the ash to drift across the U.K., if there is no more volcanic activity.

Ann Cochrane, 58, a market researcher originally from Beith, Scotland, was at Heathrow Thursday trying to get home to Toronto, where she now lives.

"I think I might cry. I just wish I was on a beach in Mexico. We took a cab at 7:30 a.m. this morning and they told us about what was going on and said we should go home," she told the Daily Mail.

"It's not so bad for us because we're only down the road so we will just hire a car for another day, but other people live hours away."