NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 18 – Kenya Airways on Sunday said that it\’s flight cancellations to and from Europe (Amsterdam, London and Paris) over the weekend would remain effective due to continued closure of European air space.
“The airline requests all passengers booked to travel on these routes to re-confirm their bookings with the airline before the date of travel and before reporting to the airport,” the airline’s Chief Executive Officer Titus Naikuni said in a statement.
He said the airline’s staffs in Amsterdam, London and Paris were making all possible efforts to contact all the booked customers with this information in order to minimise the inconvenience caused by the unavoidable occurrence.
“The airline is requesting the affected customers to be patient as the airline operations will not be at 100 percent once the situation returns to normal due to the backlog and operational constraints including but not limited to aircraft, airport parking slots and crew challenges arising from the cancellations,” he said.
Mr Naikuni said he will provide a further update on Monday to advice the customers on any new development.
The affected flights include 17 Apr KQ101 – London to Nairobi, 17 Apr KQ102 – Nairobi to London, 17 Apr KQ103 – London to Nairobi, 17 Apr KQ104 – Nairobi to London, 17 Apr KQ112 – Nairobi to Paris, 17 Apr KQ116 – Nairobi to Amsterdam, 17 Apr KQ117 – Amsterdam to Nairobi, 18 Apr KQ103 – London to Nairobi and 18 Apr KQ113 – Paris to Nairobi.
Millions of people faced worsening travel chaos on Saturday as a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, which risks lingering over Europe for up to five more days, forced countries to extend flight bans.
France announced it had decided to shut the three airports in the Paris area and others in the north of the country until 8:00 am (0600 GMT) on Monday due to the ash cloud that has caused the biggest airspace shutdown since World War II.
Britain, Denmark and Germany officially lengthened bans on most flights in their airspace until 0000 GMT Sunday.
However British Airways said it had decided to cancel all of its Sunday short-haul flights to and from London\’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
Scandinavian airline SAS added that all its flights in the region would be grounded until after the weekend with the exception of a handful of domestic flights in northern Norway.
Winds blowing the massive cloud eastward from Iceland to Russia will continue in the same direction for at least two days and could go on until the middle of next week, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said on Saturday.
The volcano on the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted on Wednesday, sending ash drifting towards Europe at an altitude of about eight to 10 kilometres (five to six miles).
British weather forecast service the Met Office indicated that "the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland was moving around and changing shape," Britain\’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said in a statement.
NATS added that "restrictions currently in place across UK controlled airspace will remain in place until at least 0100 UK time tomorrow."
Europe\’s three biggest airports — Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt — were closed Saturday, leaving passengers stranded across the world as a global flight backlog built up.
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