Iceland: Heathrow along with other airports closed due to volcanic ash

Two of Europe's busiest airports closed early Monday morning as a dense cloud of volcanic ash drifted from Iceland, aviation authorities said.The airspace over London's Heathrow Airport closed at 1 a.m. local time Monday, Britain's National Air Traffic Service said in a statement late Sunday night. In Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport, another of Europe's biggest air travel hubs, was closed until 2 p.m. local time Monday, a statement on Dutch airline KLM's website said. Airports across Britain and Ireland were closed for much of Sunday because of the drifting ash. The shifting of the no-fly zone southward will allow airports in northern England, including the key cities of Manchester and Liverpool, to reopen after 1 a.m. local time. But all airports in Northern Ireland, as well as some Scottish facilities, will remain shut. Ash can clog jet engines. The April 14 eruption at Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano forced most countries in northern Europe to shut their airspace between April 15-20, grounding more than 100,000 flights and an estimated 10 million travelers worldwide. The shutdown cost airlines more than $2 billion. Eyjafjallajokul (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) erupted in April for the first time in nearly two centuries. During its last eruption, starting in 1821, its emissions rumbled on for two years.