Scottish flights grounded by Iceland volcanic ash cloud

Flights to and from Edinburgh airport are among those which will be grounded

British Airways, Loganair, Easyjet, Eastern Airways, KLM and Flybe have cancelled Scottish flights because of Iceland's volcanic ash cloud.

The ash spewing from the Grimsvotn volcano is due to reach Scottish airspace at about 0700 BST on Tuesday.

British Airways said it had made the move based on safety advise.

Loganair will ground 38 flights with only inter-island routes in Orkney unaffected. Eastern Airways has cancelled almost 50 flights.

EasyJet announced it had cancelled flights to and from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen operating between 0500 BST and 0900 BST on Tuesday.

Dutch airline KLM will not operate its Tuesday morning services to or from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

A spokeswoman for Flybe said that all flights in and out of Aberdeen and Inverness had been cancelled, but other Scottish services were running as normal.

An Edinburgh Airport spokesman said only Ryanair was intending to operate a full service.

He added: "Due to predictions on the movement of the volcanic ash, we are anticipating the cancellation of flights tomorrow morning [Tuesday] and disruption to many more services.

"Passengers should not travel to the airport without checking with their airline first regarding the status of their flight."

British Airways was hoping to have services resumed in Scotland after 1400 BST on Tuesday.

A spokesperson said: "We continue to monitor the situation and remain in close contact with the Civil Aviation Authority, National Air Traffic Services and the Met Office.

"Customers on any cancelled flights will be able to claim a full refund or rebook onto alternative flights.

"We would urge customers not to travel to the airport if their flight has been cancelled.

"The safety of our customers is our paramount concern and we would never operate a flight unless we believed it was safe to do so."

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Loganair operates services from Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh to Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, as well as Islay, Tiree and Campbeltown.

It also provides a service from Dundee to Birmingham and Belfast.

Lincolnshire-based Eastern Airways operates services in and out of Aberdeen, Wick and Stornoway. It has cancelled almost 50 flights, including those from Aberdeen to Stavanger and Bergen in Norway.

Loganair said the forecasts issued by the Met Office indicated that a "high density" of ash would be present in large parts of Scottish airspace from Tuesday.

A spokesman for the airline said: "We have taken the decision to cancel all services with the exception of our inter-isles flights in Orkney.

"All flights due to depart between 0600 and 1300 hours tomorrow [Tuesday] have therefore been cancelled.

"You should not travel to the airport and if you are booked on a flight departing tomorrow afternoon or on Orkney internal services, you should check the website for further updates before setting out for the airport."