Heathrow, Gatwick, and other airports disrupted

by Sean McLachlan on

A large cloud of ash from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano is sweeping across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, shutting down airports all across the islands.

Heathrow and Gatwick were closed until 7am local time and have been operating on a limited capacity with numerous delays and cancellations. This morning Gatwick had the strange situation of being able to allow planes to take off, but its approach path, which was closer to the ash cloud, was closed and no flights were able to land.

Airports also faced disruptions in parts of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and the Isle of Man. Rail services are adding extra trains to deal with stranded air passengers. Currently only Belfast City, Londonderry, Shetland, and Orkney airports are closed, but most other airports in the region are still trying to catch up after numerous delays and cancellations.

As the cloud continues to move south and east, it may cause disruptions on mainland Europe. Amsterdam’s Schiphol, Rotterdam, and Groningen airports in The Netherlands are closed until at least 2pm local time.

The Met Office, a UK weather predicting service, is predicting the winds over Iceland and the North Atlantic will shift to a more easterly direction in the coming days, blowing the ash up into the arctic regions and away from more populated areas. They have created maps showing the predicted spread of the cloud.

Here comes the ash again!

by Sean McLachlan on

Airports in parts of Northern Ireland have shut down due to the latest ash cloud from Iceland’s infamous Eyjafjallajökull volcano. The main airport affected is Belfast, which will remain closed until at least 1pm local time. Ronaldsway airport on the Isle of Man is also closed.

A large cloud of ash is headed southeast from Iceland and is predicted to affect airports across the UK and the Republic of Ireland on Monday and Tuesday. If winds continue as predicted, the cloud should be out of UK airspace by Wednesday, but of course the winds could always shift back towards the UK and with the eruption showing no signs of abating, travelers could be in for another major headache.

The UK’s Met Office has produced a handy and somewhat depressing series of charts predicting the movement of the ash cloud.

Meanwhile, vulcanologist Dr. Dougal Jerram from Durham University said Eyjafjallajökull could keep erupting for several months. Vulcanologists are also worried about Eyjafjallajökull’s sister volcano Katla, which is much bigger than Eyjafjallajökull and usually erupts within a year of Eyjafjallajökull erupting.

Travelers should have figured out by this point to check ahead before going to the airport, but it bears repeating.

Kayak adds GateGuru content to its iPhone App

by Scott Carmichael on

GateGuru has joined forces with Kayak to bring their database of airport amenities to the Kayak iPhone app.

As a quick reminder – GateGuru has the most comprehensive airport amenity guide in the world – and it currently covers all US airports along with a growing lineup of international locations.

With the addition of this new feature, the Kayak app has (in my opinion) become the best all-in-one travel app there is on the iPhone.

From within Kayak, you can now search for fares, find hotels and rental cars, check flight status, look up airline fees and phone numbers, store trips from Kayak.com, set up fare alerts and more.

Best of all – the Kayak app is still free of charge (a “first class” version is available for $1.99 if you need access to business and first class fares).

If you want to take full advantage of GateGuru for features like ratings, ranks and social media updates, you’ll still need the separate app, but having instant access to this information from within Kayak is still a really neat feature.

To download the Kayak app, search the app store for Kayak, or follow this link.

%Gallery-93061%

Fly to New Zealand and back this month for only $480

by Grant Martin on

Got some free time later this month? Air New Zealand just put a giant swath of seats on sale for travel between California and New Zealand. Round trip, the entire journey only costs $399 with tax, or just about $490 all in. That’s less expensive than half of the transcontinental US flights and than all of the flights to the EU this spring.

In short, it’s a fantastic deal, and combined with the strong dollar (against the NZ dollar) and Air New Zealand’s superior transpacific service, this is a once in a lifetime experience.

If you’re interested in booking tickets, check out Air New Zealand’s website for more details. Tickets need to be purchased by day’s end Friday, May 14, 2010 for travel between May 21 and May 30.

And if you’re looking for inspiration to make your journey, check out Gadling’s series In the Corner of the World where we road trip from the tip of the north island through the heart and soul of New Zealand in a two-week-long fiesta of adventure, excitement and wide angle photos.

%Gallery-83876%

%Gallery-83877%

Registered Traveler Program returns – but only to Indianapolis airport

by Scott Carmichael on

Starting today, passengers at Indianapolis airport can speed through the security checkpoint with a new Registered Traveler Program service from iQueue.

iQueue picks up where Clear left off when they went bankrupt, and is even offering previous Clear customers 6 months of free service when they enroll.

At the moment, iQueue is only available in Indianapolis, but they obviously have plans to expand the service to other airports.

My biggest concern with the return of these services is going to be fragmentation – The remnants of Clear were purchased last week, and the new owners plan to restart the service by fall 2010. The worst possible scenario will be having two or three different providers at different airports – requiring a separate membership for each one.

Membership in iQueue costs $149 for a year – and enrollment can be done on their site.