Ash unlikely to hit Scots holiday weekend travellers

Bank holiday travel in Scotland is unlikely to be disrupted by ash from an erupting volcano in Iceland.

That was the message from the country's transport minister, Keith Brown after a meeting with key agencies.

Flights were grounded around the country on Tuesday and Wednesday when a cloud of ash from the Grimsvotn volcano drifted into Scottish airspace.

Met Office forecasts showed that high density volcanic ash was no longer an immediate threat over the UK.

Speaking after a meeting of the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR), Mr Brown said: "I am delighted that air services today have been getting back to normal allowing business to continue and passengers to continue their travel plans.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and with the bank holiday approaching, advise all travellers to check and plan their journeys in advance."

The ash cloud resulted in about 500 flights being cancelled across Europe after parts of British airspace were closed.

One of the worst hit countries was Scotland which saw flights at its main airports cancelled and hundreds of passengers stranded.

However, by the early hours of Wednesday services had resumed.

Meanwhile, Westminster's Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has met with British Airways, Easyjet, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Met Office and the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) to discuss how to reduce disruptions if there are further eruptions.

Following the meeting, Mr Hammond said: "Test aircraft are now flying through the ash cloud gathering information about its density, BA and Easyjet have agreed to provide further information to help us define the 'red zone' even more accurately in the future, and key steps have been taken to establish a new 'underflying' regime for UK airports."