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Source: ONE News -
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The frustration is likely to continue for passengers flying from New Zealand to England and Europe in the next day or two with little sign of the air space ban being lifted.
United Kingdom aviation authorities announced on Sunday that air space over England and Europe would remained closed until at least until midnight Sunday(NZ time) because of volcanic ash from the erupting volcano in Iceland.
The closure has stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers around the world since Thursday because of the risk posed from the ash to aircraft.
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.
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.
In England the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) said early today the volcanic ash cloud was moving and changing shape.
Air New Zealand spokesman Mark Street said rebooking passengers when flights resumed would depend on circumstances although the first available seats on existing services could be a fortnight away.
The flights to Los Angeles were still busy with passengers going to America and other parts of the world not affected by the volcanic ash.
Street said like every other airline, Air New Zealand was feeling the financial impact of the crisis although that could not yet be quantified.
He said when flights resumed the airline was looking at putting on extra flights when the air space was reopened but there "were a large number of variables outside our control".
"We don't know if Heathrow (London's main airport) can handle more flights and things like that."
One Air New Zealand Boeing 747 jumbo jet was stranded in London and a Boeing 777 was stranded in Frankfurt.
No special requirements were needed to protect the aircraft because of the ash.
Street said the number of passengers affeted by the delays was now about 2200.
