Britain announced in the evening of its own space 23 hours

Finally, the fear of a return to the chaos caused by a new cloud of ash announced on the night of Monday to Tuesday in England is dissipated yesterday. 18 Hours, any airport of the European Union was in the area prohibited by the regulators. The Eyjafjöll eruption continued, but the plume Icelandic which has paralysed the European sky decreased sharply, according to scientists. As the volcano began to cast the lava, which means that the glacier flows less water in the magma and ash less in escapes.

As a result, half of flights provided normally in the day in Europe was to be made. Eurocontrol, the European organisation of air navigation, advanced yesterday evening the figure of 13,000 flights. If the Finland again closed its air space and the Germany, despite a few derogatory flights, waiting up to 2 hours of the morning Wednesday, the reopening was around progressive. Britain announced in the evening of its own space 23 hours.

France, Air France assured yesterday almost all long-haul routes and has restarted its shuttles to the South of the country. What give hope to the 70,000 foreign blocked French yesterday evening. The Government hoped, end of the day, resolve the bulk of the remittances within 48 hours. Symbol of the end of the blockade, and even if the British Royal Navy provided a warship to evacuate 540 members and visitors of Spain, an Airbus A380 from New York was at Roissy at noon, with 541 passengers. Today, Air France has provided 100 of its long-haul flights, almost all the range except to Northern Europe and the North-East, and half of its domestic flights.

Exceptional aid application

But the reopening of the European sky went hand in hand with the intensification of the debate on a possible excess of precautions on the part of the regulation and control authorities. Monday already, Bernard Pédamon, Captain of Air France and elected the Board of Directors of the company pilots, official wondered: "We measured the actual risk presented by this cloud" Many pilots in doubt. ""It is is based on a mathematical model of propagation without a second assessment", he added. Meanwhile, American motorists announced yesterday working with the Federal Aviation Administration to set guidelines for the use in an environment of volcanic particles. "There is no acceptable level of concentration", estimated Bill Voss, the air safety Foundation, based in Virginia. The German company Lufthansa, it launched a new flight search from Frankfurt, in cooperation with the Scientific Institute Max Planck.

Attacked by many MEPs - "it is is simply statistical extrapolations", stated Gesine Meissner, a German Liberal-, the European Commissioner for transport, Siim Kallas, has firmly rejected the criticism accusing Governments to be concerted too late. "Say that the European model has completely failed is completely false." "This is an extraordinary event", he said during a special debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The Commission, it was recognized however that the implementation of the European "single sky", scheduled for 2012, could be accelerated. And Dominique Bussereau, the French Secretary of State for transport, felt him, that two days had been "lost."

In Brussels, it stated that if the Association of European airlines (AEA) asked "of exceptional aid" for - estimated at EUR 200 million per day - loss of profits, no formal request was received to the Commission.