Iceland will close two airports on Friday for the first time, a week after ash from an Icelandic volcano forced the shutdown of airspace over much of Europe and stranded thousands of passengers around the world, the Icelandic aviation authority announced Thursday according to this CNN report.
The Keflavik International Airport and Reykjavรญk International Airport will be closed beginning early Friday morning, the aviation authority said, according to a statement on the Keflavik airport’s website.
Though the ash cloud originated in Iceland, the country’s airports have been spared from closure until now. Strong northwest winds had been blowing ash from the volcano, in the south of Iceland, out to sea and over Europe.
Two other Icelandic international airports, in Akureyri and Egilsstadir, will stay open to all air traffic, the aviation authority said. The ash cloud is not expected to reach those cities, which are in the north and east of the island nation.
Icelandair announced Thursday that trans-Atlantic passengers from the U.S. and Europe who would have stopped in Keflavik will be rerouted Friday via Glasgow, Scotland.
Icelandair said that passengers traveling to and from Iceland will have the option of being re-routed through the Akureyri airport, a four-hour drive from Reykjavรญk. The airline is arranging bus travel between Akureyri airport and the Reykjavรญk Bus Terminal.
Read the full report from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/22/iceland.airport.closures/
Copyright Photo: Stefan Sjogren. The ash is now also disrupting domestic air travel in Iceland. Flugfelag Islands’ (Air Iceland) Fokker F.27 Mk. 050 TF-JMM (msn 20214) prepares to land at Stockholm (Arlanda).
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