Ash cloud grounds more Logan flights

By Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff

Volcanic ash from an eruption in Iceland still is having a ripple effect on travel across the world, including at Logan International Airport in Boston, where 18 flights to Europe have already been cancelled today. That's about 75 percent of the scheduled European departures and arrivals.

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and American Airlines canceled all their flights to and from London, and Delta Airlines scratched its flights to Amsterdam. American and Air France halted Paris flights, though an outbound Air France flight is still scheduled to take off this evening. Lufthansa canceled flights to Frankfurt but is still going in and out Munich.

Airlines still operating between Boston and Europe include Icelandair, which flies into Reykjavik; Aer Lingus, which resumed flights from Logan to Dublin after cancelling them yesterday; and Alitalia Airlines, which flies to Rome.

This is the second day of cancellations at airports worldwide. It is one of the busiest times of the year at Logan, with families going on spring break overlapping with runners and spectators arriving for the Boston Marathon, which takes place Monday.

An exhibitor who was supposed to at the John Hancock Sports & Fitness Expo, which opened yesterday, was stuck in London, as was a Boston-based Houghton Mifflin book publisher attending the London Book Fair. Elite Boston Marathon runner Abdellah Falil, from Morocco, was stranded in Paris after his flight was canceled twice. And Boston area students and teachers who had booked trips to Europe with EF Educational Tours in Cambridge were scrambling to rebook their flights and adjust their itineraries.

Valier Galy and his wife were due to leave Boston, via London, for Zurich Thursday evening, but yesterday afternoon they were still at Logan International Airport trying to find a way there. Galy, of Falmouth, had tried calling British Airways to rebook the flight but gave up after hearing that the waiting time was "600 and something minutes." The next flight they could get was leaving Monday evening.

"It was a big eruption, no doubt about it," said Galy, a geologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "But do they have to close all the airports in Europe? I'm not sure."

Between 500 and 600 runners are coming from Europe to run the Boston Marathon, but it was unclear how many of them might be affected by flight cancellations, said Guy Morse, executive director of the Boston Athletic Association, which organizes the marathon. Of the 40-plus elite runners, only one is stranded: Morocco's Abdellah Falil, who was stuck in Paris yesterday but is expected to reach Boston this weekend.

Eurocontrol, the European air traffic agency, said disruptions that reverberated throughout the world Thursday were even worse today, with about 11,000 flights expected to operate in Europe instead of the usual 28,000. It said delays will continue well into Saturday as the massive yet invisible ash cloud moves slowly south and east.

Polish officials said the ash cloud could threaten the arrival of world leaders for Sunday's state funeral of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, in the southern city of Krakow. Kaczynski's family insisted Friday they wanted the funeral to go forward as planned.

So far, President Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are among those coming and no one has canceled. Merkel, however, could not even get back to Berlin after a visit to Washington. She was diverted to Portugal.

Train stations, hotels and car rental agencies were jammed in key European cities by people scrambling to make alternative plans. Extra long-distance trains were put on in Amsterdam and lines to buy train tickets were so long the train company was handing out free coffee.

Aviation specialists said it was among the worst disruptions Europe has ever seen.

"We don't have many volcanoes in Europe," said David Learmount of Flight International, an editor at the aviation publication. "But the wind was blowing in the wrong direction."

Ice chunks the size of houses tumbled down from a volcano beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier on Thursday as hot gases melted the ice. The volcano began erupting Wednesday for the second time in less than a month.

The cloud, drifting between 20,000 to 30,000 feet high and invisible from the ground, at first blocked the main air flight path between the US east coast and Europe. Today, the British Meteorological Office said the cloud's trajectory was taking it over northern France and Austria and into eastern and central Russia at about 25 mph.

Fearing that microscopic particles of highly abrasive ash could endanger passengers by causing aircraft engines to fail, authorities shut down air space over Britain, Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Belgium. That halted flights at Europe's two busiest airports -- Heathrow in London and Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris -- as well as dozens of other airports.

As the cloud moved east, flights were halted today at Frankfurt airport, Europe's third-busiest terminal, and at 10 other German airports including Duesseldorf, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne. No flights were allowed either at Ramstein Air Base, a key U.S. military hub in southwestern Germany. Only about 120 trans-Atlantic flights reached European airports this morning, compared with 300 typically, said Eurocontrol. About 60 flights between Asia and Europe were canceled.

Air space restrictions were lifted or imposed or extended as the cloud moved east and south. Aviation authorities in Ireland reopened airports in Dublin and Cork and France allowed some planes to land at Paris' three airports this afternoon.

Sweden and Norway declared skies in the far north to be safe again even as flights in both capitals -- Stockholm and Oslo -- were still on a lockdown. Switzerland, Croatia and Slovakia closed their airspaces and Poland expanded its no-fly zone today to most of the country.

Britain and Belgium extended flight restrictions until Saturday morning, but Britain allowed some flights out of Northern Ireland and western Scotland.

The World Health Organization in Geneva said the ash cloud mostly remained high in the atmosphere, but it could pose a health risk if particles reached the ground. It advised Europeans to try to stay indoors if the ash fell, because inhaling the particles can cause respiratory problems, especially for those suffering from asthma and respiratory diseases.

Material from Globe wire services was used in this report.