page_title: Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption
section_title: Airspace restrictions in Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption / Airspace restrictions in Europe
caption_attribution_description: English: Flights returning to mainline Europe after the flight disruption after the Eyjafjallajökull eruption. There is limited data for France and parts of Spain.
context_page_description: In response to concerns that volcanic ash ejected during the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland would damage aircraft engines, the controlled airspace of many European countries was closed to instrument flight rules traffic, resulting in what at the time was the largest air-traffic shut-down since World War II. The closures caused millions of passengers to be stranded not only in Europe, but across the world. With large parts of European airspace closed to air traffic, many more countries were affected as flights to, from, and over Europe were cancelled.
  After an initial uninterrupted shutdown over much of northern Europe from 15 to 23 April, airspace was closed intermittently in different parts of Europe in the following weeks, as the path of the ash cloud was tracked. The ash cloud caused further disruptions to air travel operations in Scotland and Ireland on 4 and 5 May and in Spain, Portugal, northern Italy, Austria, and southern Germany on 9 May. Irish and UK airspace closed again on 16 May and reopened on 17 May.
  The eruption occurred beneath glacial ice.
context_section_description: Under international regulations, all scheduled passenger flights operate under the instrument flight rules (IFR) which requires clearance to be obtained from air traffic control. From 14 April onwards, the controlled airspace was closed in several European countries and no IFR clearances were granted. The airspace of Iceland itself was hardly disrupted in this period (although a change in the wind direction on 23 April caused the main airport to be closed).
  By 23 April, the restrictions were lifted over much of Europe through the introduction of new guidelines on volcanic ash density. After this date there were sporadic closures from time to time, notably in the UK, Ireland, and Iceland, but not a blanket shutdown.
caption: Flights returning to most of mainland Europe on 19 April 2010. Note that no data is available for much of France and some other areas.
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