The volcanic ash cloud has moved into northeast Europe, allowing flights from Ireland to resume as normal for the next week, at least.

Almost 300,000 flights have been canceled over the last month, and the Irish Aviation Authority has now seen fit to reduce the size of the no-fly zones around the ash cloud.

A spokesperson from the authority said, “We’ve got so much data now coming in we can refine the model a lot better and better determine the borders of high concentrations of ash.

“The more refined the model and more detail we have, we can get a better indication of what level of ash is a risk.”

All flights to and from Ireland have been operating as normal from 7 a.m. (EDT) today following the disruption cause by the cloud over the weekend. All airports in Ireland will now remain open until further notice.

The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland is spewing ash and cloud 7,010 to 8833 meters into the atmosphere.

Yesterday, two observation flights were launched over Ireland and both were given the all clear afterwards.
About 36,000 people had their travel plans disrupted this weekend with almost 300 flights out of Dublin Airport being canceled.

Airflows have returned to the usual southwesterly pattern and are now pushing the ash cloud up over Scandinavia. Weather patterns are expected to remain the same until Friday.

“The volcanic ash cloud is moving east, away from Irish airspace and, based on the meteorological situation, the IAA does not anticipate putting any further restrictions in place due to volcanic ash for at least the next 48 hours,” the spokesperson said.

Aer Lingus has been forced to cancel a number of flights despite the airports reopening.

Ryanair scheduled extra flights from Dublin, the East Midlands, Glasgow Prestwick and Liverpool to and from Alicante in Spain, the Canary Islands and Faro, Portugal. It is also planning additional services between Dublin and London Stansted from tomorrow.