AI, Jet, Kingfisher flights to Europe cancelled

Flights to the UK and other European destinations of Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines remained cancelled for the sixth consecutive day today in the wake of huge clouds of volcanic ash emanating from Iceland.

Air India and Jet, however, operated their flights to the US and Canada through a different route with technical stopovers at Cairo and Athens respectively, airlines officials said.

Air India's Chicago-Mumbai-Chicago and Newark-Ahmedabad flights resumed its service with technical stopovers at Cairo on Monday.

The flight is schedule to arrive this evening and would return tonight. Similarly, Jet Airways operated its Delhi-Toronto and Mumbai-Newark services via Athens.

Air India would also operate a combined flight AI 191/144 on the Delhi-Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Newark-Mumbai to clear the backlog of passengers between India and Newark. Kingfisher, which operates four flights between London and Delhi and Mumbai, has cancelled its flights.

Five of Air India's planes are stuck in foreign airports. Two are stuck at London and one each at Frankfurt, Chicago and New York due to the disruption.

On Monday, European governments decided to open he continent's airspace to new flights from today giving hope to stranded passengers around the world.