Turkey's aviation authority lifts restrictions

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey's aviation authority on Monday lifted most of the restrictions on parts of its airspace as ash clouds from a volcanic eruption in Iceland moved away, an official said. But only a third of scheduled flights in Europe were given the go-ahead because major ports were still closed.

Airspace over the northern provinces of Zonguldak, Sinop and Samsun on the Black Sea coast — closed on Sunday — was re-opened to air traffic as of 8:30 a.m. GMT Monday, an official from the Directorate of Civil Aviation told AFP.

A narrow band of airspace between the altitudes of 10,000 and 30,000 feet over the sea off Zonguldak remained closed, added the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"But the restriction has no effect on air traffic services," he said. "All Turkish airports remain open."

Air traffic across Europe has been crippled since Thursday when a vast cloud of ash from a volcano in Iceland started spreading southwards and eastwards.

As a result, thousands of foreign tourists have been stranded in Turkey, a major holiday destination for Europeans, and thousands more have been unable to arrive for scheduled vacations.

Meteorology officials said the cloud that reached Turkey on Sunday began to move north over the Black Sea under a southerly wind.

An ash cloud from Iceland's spewing volcano halted air traffic across a wide swathe of Europe on Thursday, grounding planes on a scale unseen since the 2001 terror attacks as authorities stopped all flights over Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries.

Thousand of flights were canceled, stranding tens of thousands of passengers, and officials said it was not clear when it would be safe enough to fly again, Hurriet Daily News reported.