Spain closes 20 airports because of volcanic ash - Summary

Madrid/Hamburg - Twenty northern Spanish airports will remain closed Saturday at least until 8 pm (1800 GMT) because of the arrival of a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, Infrastructure Minister Jose Blanco said.

Airports which had already been closed comprised Santiago de Compostela, La Coruna, Vigo, Asturias, Santander, Burgos, Valladolid, Salamanca, Leon, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Vitoria, Zaragoza, Pamplona, Llerida and La Rioja.

Ash was now drifting towards the north-eastern region of Catalonia, which would close the airports of Barcelona, Sabadell, Girona and Reus, Blanco said.

About 320 of the 648 scheduled flights were expected to be canceled at Barcelona airport, affecting 28,000 passengers.

More than 120 out of a total 190 flights had been canceled at other airports by midday, affecting 9,500 passengers.

The ministry was helping to organize alternative transport by rail, road or sea. The rail company Renfe was scheduling extra trains while the airline Iberia was hiring buses for its passengers.

The ash cloud arrived overnight and is also affecting part of Portugal, where more than 120 flights were canceled.

According to the Meteorological Institute in London, the ash cloud could linger over northern Spain through Sunday and spread eastwards towards the Mediterranean region and Italy.

On Friday, Iceland's Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management reported that volcano under the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier, 120 kilometers south-east of Reykjavik, was again spewing increased amounts of ash.

In the preceding days the volcano was "producing less lava and more volcanic ash," agency spokesman Agust Gunnar Gylfason said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/322641,spain-closes-20-airports-because-of-volcanic-ash--summary.html.