Flightless Kiwis stranded - travel bans extended

Hundreds of Kiwis remain stranded overseas as a volcanic ash cloud closed airports across north and central Europe for a third day.

Meanwhile, Air New Zealand believes more than 2000 passengers have been unable to leave New Zealand because they would get only as far as Hong Kong or Los Angeles on their flights back to England and Europe.

Some of them were broke at the end of their holiday and desperate for accommodation when Tourism Auckland stepped in with an offer to find billets for the stranded passengers in New Zealand homes.

Tourist Auckland chief executive Graeme Osborne said the scheme had not been widely promoted but already they had received far more offers than they needed with only about eight passengers needing beds.

"We are surprised at the level of uptake and we are a little over subscribed."

Air traffic control in Britain predicted the situation would get worse yesterday after 16,000 flights were cancelled on Friday.

UK aviation authorities announced that air space over England and Europe would remain shut until at least 7am on Monday (NZT).

Paris airports and about two dozen others in northern France are also closed until 6pm Monday.

Spain, Sweden, Serbia and the Netherlands are closed to all flights until further notice, while other air travel bans exist across much of Europe.

Airlines are losing an estimated $282 million a day.

About 600 Europe-bound Air New Zealand passengers on flights which were grounded last Thursday remained in their hotels in Los Angeles, Frankfurt and Hong Kong today.

London-bound Air New Zealand flights leaving Auckland last night were terminating at Los Angeles and Hong Kong, and Qantas has cancelled all Europe-bound flights until Tuesday afternoon.

Air New Zealand said it would continue to meet accommodation costs until flights to Europe resumed.

However, the airline also repeated its warning that although flights to Los Angeles and Hong Kong were still going ahead, any passengers continuing on to Europe and the United Kingdom would have to pay their own way once they got to Los Angeles and Hong Kong and could go no further.

Hundreds of travellers have been forced to camp out at Los Angeles and Hong Kong because they could not afford to pay for their own accommodation or not find accommodation due to the high demand.

Jennie Brockie and Susan Holmes were headed to the London Book Fair via Los Angeles.

But, while coming into LA airport for what was supposed to just be a brief stop, the 175 passengers - including Governor-General Anand Satyanand on his way to the Polish President Lech Kaczynski's funeral - were told Heathrow Airport was closed and they would have to stay in the US.

Two days on, Brockie and Holmes remain in limbo at the Marriott Hotel at Los Angeles.

Brockie said: "We're a little frustrated but Air New Zealand has a couple of reps on site who have been updating us morning and night. We've just been told they're paying for us to stay for a third night."

She said they would return to Auckland if the situation hadn't changed by today. "It is very frustrating, because this is our big conference for the year and we've been gearing up to meet all our international contacts for quite some time."

Herald on Sunday columnist Kerre Woodham, who was leading a travel group to the Paris marathon, had been due to fly home on Friday night with her daughter Kate. But she was resigned to the fact she would be stuck for several days.

"I'm officially in my first day of being stranded but there are others who have been waiting four days. God knows when the backlog will be cleared. We are at the bottom of the pile.

"I'm supposed to be back at work on Monday, but there's no chance of that happening. I just feel so sorry for the airlines and for people who are waiting to travel."

She said insurance would cover her stay, but she was moving to a cheaper hotel.

Broadcaster Susan Wood's 16-year-old son was also stuck in Paris, where he was on a school trip, while former Green MP Sue Bradford was stranded in Frankfurt.

Paris-based Kiwi Sarah Mouscardes said her husband Matthieu was stuck in Dubai after trying to rush home to sit an important law exam. "He probably won't make it from Dubai to Paris, because the Paris airport is closed and we won't know if he'll make it until midnight tonight," said Mouscardes. "If he misses his exam he's probably going to have to redo his whole year of study. It's quite stressful."

The 31-year-old, who has been in New Zealand visiting family for six weeks, said her return to France with 10-week-old son Theo was "going to be an absolute nightmare".

- with NZPA, NZ Herald staff