Most of the flights to and from Sofia Airport continue to be canceled Saturday over the drifting ash ejected from a volcano in Iceland, the airport management informs.

Only the fate of about 10 evening flights remains unclear, but the day flights to Vienna, London, Berlin, Prague, Munich, Amsterdam, Paris and the ones from London, Brussels, Munich and Frankfurt are canceled.

Passengers, who decide to not reschedule the canceled flights, will be reimbursed. All travelers, for whose flights a decision is yet to be made, are asked to arrive at the airport about an hour and a half before the scheduled flight time.

Information about delays and cancellations can be obtained at the airport, on the phone and through the airport webpage.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers are affected and severe disruptions could extend to many days to come, including flights to North America and Asia over the volcano’s continuous ejection of ash and smoke while scientist say they do not expect the volcanic activity to end in the next few days. Nearly 17 000 flights so far have been canceled and airports in the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands remain closed for the third day in a row. Some flights have been redirected to Hungary and Romania.

The ash cloud is expected to reach western Turkey at some point Saturday, including areas around the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

The Istanbul airport is crowded with stranded passengers as well, so are the airports in Ankara and Izmir. The Turkish airlines canceled flights to a total of 14 countries and 4 000 tourists are unable to leave the country’s resorts.

The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reports that countries in southern Europe are not yet affected by the cloud, but airports there also cancel flights over problems in other parts of the continent.

The Athens airport has also annulled 47 arrivals and 37 departures Saturday.

 Following the closure of airspace and airports in more than 8 EU counties including Ireland, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, due the volcanic eruption in Iceland, the European Commission Vice President and Transport Commissioner, Siim Kallas, said that even in exceptional circumstances EU passenger rights continue to apply and air travelers should speak up to claim their rights.

The EU passenger rights that apply in this situation are: the right to receive information from airlines (e.g. on your rights, on the situation as it evolves, cancellations and length of delays: the right to care (refreshments, meals, accommodation as appropriate); the right to chose between reimbursement of fares or be re-routed to final destination

In an exceptional circumstance such as this, passengers are not however entitled to additional financial compensation that would be the case where delays or cancellations are the fault of the airline.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!