Kingfisher cancels flights to London due to volcanic ash

MUMBAI: With drifting volcanic ash from Iceland forcing closure of two European airports, Kingfisher Airlines today cancelled all its flights to London while Air India rescheduled its Mumbai-London flight.

"Having assessed the current information received from Eurocontrol, and the trends indicating anticipated closure of the airspace over London Heaththrow airport due to fresh contamination of volcanic ash, Kingfisher airlines has cancelled its flights to and from London airport," its spokesperson told.

Air India has rescheduled its Mumbai-London flight AI-131, which was to take off at 2.20 this morning.

"We will take a call on the issue at 1130 hours," its spokesperson said.

However, Jet Airways said that all its flights to London were on schedule.

The airspace over London's Heathrow Airport and Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, another of Europe's biggest air travel hubs, closed this morning as a dense cloud of volcanic ash drifted from Iceland.

The restrictions affecting Heathrow -as well as Gatwick, Stansted and London City airports- will be in place until at least 7 a m local time (1130 IST), the aviation authority said.