News of: Monday, April 19 2010,

First flights have left Amsterdam Airport, after shutdown due to Icelandic ash cloud

This evening, the first three flights with passengers have left Schiphol Airport.

The flights are destined for New York, Shanghai and Dubai, the three destinations from where the most stranded passengers were still camping on the Amsterdam airport.

Extra measures are taken to avoid the volcanic ash cloud, where necessary. For example, the flight altitude might be adapted.

It looks like tomorrow more flights will be carried out, but it is uncertain at this moment which flights exactly, and how many.

It will take at least several days before the situation is back to normal.

More information can be found on http://www.schiphol.nl