Irish holidaymakers will be dismayed at the news that Ireland is under threat from a volcanic ash cloud emanating from an explosion in Iceland over the weekend.
Only a year after an eruption in Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland shut vast amounts of European airspace and delayed 10 million passengers, a massive blast in the Grimsvotn crater sent a thick flume of deadly smoke into the air, resulting in a 120-mile no-fly zone across Iceland.
The main airport in the country in Reykjavik was shut down, while flights in mid-air were diverted following the explosion, which began at around 6pm on Saturday. There are fears that the cloud could hit Scotland on Tuesday and Ireland on Wednesday depending on wind direction.
Aviation spokeswoman Hjorids Gudmundsdottir said the next 24 hours would be crucial as they seek to determine where the cloud will go, saying: “We have closed the area until we know better what effect the ash will have.”
Geophysicist at Iceland’s Met Office Einar Kjartanasson added: “If the eruption lasts for a long time we could be seeing similar effects as seen with Eyjafjallajokull last year.”
The news will dismay Irish travellers who have already made holiday plans for the summer, with cancellations and lengthy delays likely if the latest explosion has the same effect as last year, when hundreds of planes were grounded in an episode that had devastating economic effects for the aviation industry.
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