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According to Qantas, its planes have been given the green signal to leave London’s Heathrow airport after some flights were grounded overnight because of fresh ash cloud fears. The ash cloud from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano is clearing and most airlines are now working through flight backlogs and assessing their damage bills after a six-day shutdown.
However Qantas was keeping two planes on the tarmac at Heathrow after receiving reports of a "significant meteorological report" of ash on the proposed flight path. One flight, QF30 to Melbourne, was cancelled. But a second, QF32 to Sydney via Singapore, took off this morning after the airline received the all clear.
A Qantas spokeswoman says most of the passengers from QF30 were able to be accommodated on QF32. Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth says the airline now has to move 15,500 of its passengers affected by the ash cloud.
"There will be delays in coming weeks if the situation doesn’t resolve and the ash cloud doesn’t completely clear," she said. "There will be delays and we’ll continue to operate around those. Obviously for us we will be taking a very conservative approach to this."
Qantas will resume flights to Europe from Melbourne this afternoon.
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