Flight disruptions due to ash cloud

Many flights out of northern Spain and Portugal have been cancelled and most between Europe and North America were delayed. A glance at the disruptions:

Spain: 20 airports in the north, including international hub Barcelona, have been closed until at least 24:00 (2200 GMT). Other affected airports include Santiago, Vigo and Bilbao. Spain's main international airport of Madrid was expected to remain open. Airport authority Aena said more than 670 flights had been canceled up to 14:00 (1200 GMT).

Portugal: 125 flights in and out of Portugal were canceled up to noon local time (1100 GMT), affecting mainly Faro, Lisbon and Porto. some flight disruptions to mid-Atlantic Azores Islands the Madeira Islands.

Most of the cancellations were to or from the UK, Ireland, and central and southern Europe. Portugal to be free of the plume by 1800 GMT.

Britain: Customers are advised to check their flight status before travelling to airports. London Stansted Airport saw 25 Ryanair services to destinations including the Canary Islands, Spain and Portugal cancelled, along with four easyJet flights.

At Gatwick, three easyJet services to Portugal were grounded while another four Ryanair flights to Alicante, Madrid and Barcelona were canceled.

Ryanair put details of cancelled flights on its website including services from East Midlands, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Liverpool.

American Airlines said trans-Atlantic flights were travelling 90 minutes to two hours longer on average.

France: Weather service Meteo France said the ash cloud would cross the Pyrenees overnight and move southeast and southwest in France.

An Air France flight from Boston arrived in Paris Saturday with a more than four hour delay. Passengers were told a traffic backlog due to airport closings meant skies were crowded in the southern corridors open to trans-Atlantic flights.

Germany: Frankfurt airport website shows a few delays to trans-Atlantic flights (mostly an hour or so).

Switzerland: Few disruptions though several easyJet flights from Geneva to Portugal and Spain have been canceled.

Netherlands: KLM said North American flights are being rerouted south or north around the ash cloud, adding on average of an hour to flights.

Italy: Italy's civil aviation authority ENAC said no flights would be allowed over a large swath of northern Italy on Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. (0600 GMT to 1200 GMT), after the cloud headed toward Italy. Airports in Venice, a heavy tourist destination, Trieste and Rimini, however, remain open.

- AP