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Slovak Airspace Open for Planes Again (UPDATE)
Monday 19 April 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, April 19 (TASR) - Slovakia's airspace has been completely reopened as of Monday, TASR has learnt in the afternoon. Following the east of Slovakia being reopened on Monday morning, flights at all altitudes are being allowed over the whole country.
"As of 2.40 p.m., the airspace in western Slovakia has been reopened," informed Bratislava Airport spokesperson Dana Madunicka.
Slovakia's airspace is reopened only temporarily - for the next 36 hours, TASR was informed by Transport Ministry spokesman Stanislav Jurikovic. Only Slovak aviation authorities are authorised to grant individual flight permits, and then it's up to airlines, or flight captains, if they decide to make flights, said Jurikovic, adding that the airlines and their crews are strongly recommended to reconsider the flight if there is a risk of hitting a volcanic ash cloud across the sky.
On Monday, only three flights starting at 6 p.m. are scheduled to depart from Bratislava - a charter flight to Hurghada, Egypt (booked by Travel Service) and regular flights to Kosice (Danube Wings) and Prague (Czech Airlines). All the other originally scheduled regular flights remain cancelled.
Most of the flights scheduled for Tuesday are reported to be cancelled, too. Irish low-cost airline Ryanair, which runs the majority of flights to and from Bratislava, said their flights would be cancelled until Wednesday 1 p.m., which will affect regular connections to destinations in Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, as well as in the north of France and Germany.
The airspace over Slovakia was shut down on Friday 3 p.m. due to volcanic ash cloud drifting across Europe. As a result, as many as 113 flights have been cancelled from Bratislava to date, affecting around 16,500 travellers, either arriving in or departing from the Slovak capital. Madunicka said since the airspace has been closed the airport has been losing tens of thousands euros daily.
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