Passengers on an SN Brussels flight to Belgium scheduled to fly out of Kigali International Airport , this week,  were forced to cancel their plans as a result of an ash cloud  that forced  airports across Europe to shut down.

According to Richard Masozera, the Director General of Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority (RCAA) , the impact is still small, but hastened to add that it is too soon to identify the real impact of the European situation on travel arrangements back home.

 "The number I have is about 50 plus people who cancelled because they didn’t see the point in taking the SN Brussels flight. I believe this flight continued but had to wait somewhere else – probably at Entebbe,” Masozera said.

Reports from Europe note that air-traffic problems shifted Friday as clouds of ash spewed from a volcano under Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier were blown across Europe.

Volcanic ash is a serious threat to aircraft safety, and the cloud has spread across one of the busiest travel and trade routes in the world, forcing the closure of many of Europe’s airports.

All major airlines in Asia were forced to cancel, delay or divert flights to and from Europe leaving thousands of passengers stranded. 

Reports from Europe yesterday indicated that more than half of Europe’s regularly scheduled commercial flights were expected to remain grounded and many of the regions busiest airline routes will be closed until Saturday.

Ends