Southampton Airport has announced this morning, Thursday 15 April, that all Flybe flights have been cancelled for the day due to the volcanic ash drifting across the UK from Iceland – and yet the weather in Hedge End is beautiful and the sky a lovely clear blue!

It’s hard to believe that three miles up volcanic ash is causing chaos for air passengers.

The closure of Southampton Airport to flights has been taken on the advice of the Met Office and the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) and flights from all UK airports have been affected.

Earlier Air Traffic Control in Swanwick said that flights across the whole country would cease from 12.00 noon until 6.00pm at the earliest. The advice from Southampton Airport (as at 1.15pm on Thursday 15 April) to passengers due to fly today is not to travel to the airport and to contact their airline for further information.

This is the second time in a month that the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, has erupted and this eruption is estimated to be between 10 and 20 times more powerful than that of 20 March which occurred after 200 years of the volcano lying dormant.

Flights are grounded because not only does the ash reduce visibility but it can affect a plane’s landing and navigation gear as well as cause damage to the engines.

I have a friend waiting on the end of a phone line waiting to hear if her trip to Singapore will be refunded or rebooked – but she definitely won’t be travelling today – and another due to fly in from Dubai who won’t be getting home as planned.

Anyone in Hedge End been affected by the airport closures?

(And does anyone know how to pronounce Eyjafjallajokull?)

The photo is of the previous eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier – from Flickr by Kaja Þrastardóttir's.