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A plume of volcanic ash rises six to 11 kilometres into the atmosphere, from a crater under about 200 metres of ice at the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland - Source: Reuters -
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New Zealand travellers hoping to make it to Europe are facing at least another 36 hours of delays as a result of the volcanic ash cloud over Northern Europe.
There will be no commercial flights in or out of the UK, including the world's busiest airport Heathrow as there is a total aviation lockdown.
Why is volcanic ash a threat to planes? Find out here
Air New Zealand is advising people with flights to Europe to defer their travel plans as a huge cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano spreads across the north of the continent.
Air traffic across Europe has been paralysed by the imposition of a massive no-fly zone amid fears the ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano could be sucked into aircraft engines, causing them to fail.
How long is the Iceland volcano expected to
hit Europe flights?
Find out here
It was the first time "within living memory" a natural
disaster had caused Britain to close its air space, a spokeswoman
for the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) says.
The closure of London's Heathrow Airport from 5am NZT has resulted in Air New Zealand cancelling Friday's (April 15 UK time) NZ1 London to Auckland flight via Los Angeles, and the NZ38 London to Auckland via Hong Kong flight.
NZ39 from Hong Kong to London has been diverted to Frankfurt, Germany, with passengers accommodated in hotels.
NZ2 from Los Angeles to London remained in Los Angeles on Thursday night NZT and is likely to return to Auckland on Friday.
Flight NZ2 and NZ39 will be departing from Auckland as usual on Friday but it is likely they will be grounded at their stopover destinations of LA and Hong Kong. Passengers are unlikely to get through to Heathrow and are advised to make other plans.
Air New Zealand international group general manager Ed Sims says travellers face "a very uncertain situation".
He told TVNZ's Breakfast programme that people should look at defering travel arrangements and check their travel insurance to see what coverage they can get.
He says they cannot guarantee at what point people will be able to fly on to Heathrow.
Sims says Air NZ has three or four planes, so a few thousand people affected.
The airline is expecting to be updated on the situation about 6pm NZT.
"I would anticipate there would be significant delays from that point on because there's such a vast backlog of flights."
Passengers stranded
Passengers stranded at the Auckland Airport told ONE News of the frustration of being unable to go anywhere.
One family has rented their Nelson home out to another family for two weeks and subsequently have nowhere to go in the meantime.
Another says they are left consoling disappointed children after a trip to Disneyland has been affected.
Some passengers talk of how they were unloaded from planes on the tarmac after having boarded ready for takeoff.
Many are now stuck in Auckland at their own expense.
Keep up-to-date
In order to keep up-to-date, Air New Zealand says passengers should check the airline's website, call 0800 737 000, or check with their travel agent.
The disruption could last at least two days and a leading volcano expert says the ash could present intermittent problems to air traffic for six months if the eruption continued.
The volcano began erupting on Thursday for the second time in a month, hurling a plume of ash six-11km into the atmosphere. The ash cloud spread southeast overnight.
French airports were closing, with Brussels, Amsterdam and Geneva airports saying they had cancelled a large number of flights.
In 1982, a British Airways jumbo jet lost power in all its engines when it flew into an ash cloud over Indonesia, gliding towards the ground before it was able to restart its engines.
The incident prompted the aviation industry to rethink the way it prepared for ash clouds, resulting in international contingency plans which were activated on Thursday.
NZ flights affected
NZ1 from London to Auckland via Los Angeles is grounded at Heathrow.
NZ38 from London to Auckland via Hong Kong is grounded at Heathrow.
NZ39 from Hong Kong to London has been diverted to Frankfurt and is grounded there.
NZ2 is grounded in Los Angeles and likely to return to New Zealand.
Flight NZ2 and NZ39 will be departing from Auckland as usual on Friday but it is likely they will be grounded at their stopover destinations of LA and Hong Kong. Passengers are unlikely to get through to Heathrow.
Have you been affected by the disruption to flights? Send us an email at interactivenews@tvnz.co.nz
ONE News will have the latest information at
6pm.
