Ash clouds ground 500 flights in Europe

About 500 commercial flights were cancelled in the closure of parts of the airspace over Britain due the spread of dense ash from the erupting Iceland volcano, European air traffic controller Eurocontrol said on Tuesday.

The agency said that there was a strong possibility the cloud would now move to parts of Denmark, as well as Norway and Sweden, however that the impact on flights was expected to be limited.

The Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in London once again warned, while Iceland, Greenland and Scotland already are affected, there was a risk that some ash clouds may reach parts of northern Europe in the next 48 hours.

Iceland?s Grimsvotn volcano erupted on Saturday, spewing ash plumes 17 kilometers into the air and raising concerns of a repeat of last year?s events when the the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in exploded in April.

Airlines last year lost millions of euros in revenue when clouds of volcanic ash covered much of Europe, forcing closure of most of the continents airspace and the cancellations of tens of tens of thousands of flights.