Ash crisis: UK airports reopen as rules rewritten
Updated on 20 April 2010
The first BA jet lands at London just hours after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) rewrote the rules governing volcanic ash clouds and gave the go-ahead for all UK airports to re-open.
The BA jet from Vancouver landed at London's Heathrow Airport just before 10pm BST.
It followed the earlier announcement at the conclusion of talks at Whitehall between government officials, the CAA and airline representatives.
The CAA described the closure of many parts of UK airspace due to ash from an Icelandic volcano as a "situation without precedent" and said that its decisions had been made based on "thorough gathering of data and analysis".
"The major barrier to resuming flight has been understanding tolerance levels of aircraft to ash," the CAA said.
"Manufacturers have now agreed increased tolerance levels in low ash density areas."
Some restrictions will remain in place, but they will be much smaller than those enforced under the current ban.
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis emphasised that safety remained paramount.
He said: "It is essential that we guarantee to the travelling public that the airlines are safe and that planes can safely fly."
The continued flight ban for most areas of southern England had been increasingly criticised by the aviation industry, which had warned of massive losses.
More than a 150,000 air passengers have been stranded around the world awaiting flights to resume.
Five coaches carrying 250 Britons were leaving Madrid tonight after the British Embassy there managed to arrange transport.
The passengers will be driven to Calais before boarding a ferry across the Channel.
Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways, welcomed the lifting of the restrictions.
He said: "Safety has been at the forefront of everybody's minds while reaching this decision. We are now going to start the difficult task of getting our stranded customers home. This is an airlift which has been unprecedented."
He added that "lessons can be learned" and added: "There will be plenty of time for a post mortem of what has happened over the last few days."
The announcement hours after it emerged 26 British Airways long-haul flights had set off from destinations in Africa, Asia, and the US - San Francisco, Boston and Cape Town - with the aim of landing at London's airports.
A spokesman for BAA, which operates Heathrow, said it would do everything possible to "get people moving".
"We are ready to open, but until further notice passengers must contact their airline before travelling to the airport," the spokesman said.
"Not all flights will operate during the early period of opening, and we will do everything we can to support airlines and get people moving."
