Iceland Volcano Grounds Airline ETF

Forecasters can anticipate where the ash cloud from Iceland's spewing volcano is likely to spread, but they can't tell how long the eruption could last. The greater fear: The Eyjafjallajokull volcano could trigger a bigger eruption of a larger volcano nearby.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Ash from a volcano erupting in Iceland has forced the closure of airports in Britain and across northern Europe. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled, trans-Atlantic travel is severely disrupted and thousands of passengers have been left stranded. Civil aviation authorities in Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia have closed their airspace, concerned that the volcanic ash could damage jet engines.

Airlines grounded hundreds of flights on Tuesday after a plume of ash from a volcano in Iceland blanketed Britain and touched Scandinavia in a fresh travel nightmare for thousands of passengers.Barely a year after a similar eruption in Iceland forced the biggest closure of European airspace since World War II, British Airways was the first to suspend flights from London to Scotland.

Iceland's Eyjafjoell volcano spewed more ash on Tuesday than in recent days, but the level remained much lower than when the eruption began three weeks ago, an Icelandic geophysicist told AFP."The plume has increased. It is black ... There is more ash in the plume and it is (rising) higher," Sigrun Hreinsdottir of the University of Iceland in Reykjavik said Wednesday.Ireland reimposed a partial ban on flights early Wednesday as the cloud of volcanic ash drifted south from Iceland, while flight restrictions were also imposed in Scotland and Northern Ireland.