Ukraine closes air space as volcanic ash cloud reaches its territory.

KIEV, April 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukraine has closed its air space, as the
volcanic ash cloud from Iceland has reached its territory, the press
service of the Transport and Communication Ministry reported on Saturday
evening.
The air zone over Simferopol is closed.
Simferopol airport remained the only one open for arriving planes in
Ukraine on Saturday. The airports of Lvov, Kiev (Borispol), Odessa and
Dnepropetrovsk were closed earlier.
Due to the closure of airports in the country the demand for train
tickets has increased, a source at the state railway transport
administration told Itar-Tass.
Additional carriages are joined to trains running to European
countries.
The demand is not so much so far to send additional trains, but each
train to Warsaw and Berlin have one additional carriage, the source said.
According to reports from Minsk, Belarus limited air traffic over its
territory on Saturday morning. The air zone from the altitude of seven
kilometres to eleven kilometres was closed late on Friday and on Saturday.
Minsk National Airport canceled most of the flights to Europe, but liners
continued to fly in the eastward direction, including to Moscow.
Belarussian air services monitor the volcanic cloud movement and stay in
contact with colleagues in Russia, Ukraine and other European countries.





.Aeroflot to cancel 41 flights to Eur countries on Sun, Apr 18.



MOSCOW, April 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's major airline Aeroflot will
cancel 41 flights to European countries on Sunday, April 18, the company's
press service told Itar-Tass.
Flights will be cancelled to Zagreb, Berlin, Prague, Frankfurt,
Amsterdam, Belgrade, Paris, London, Riga, Dusseldorf, Stockholm, Brussels,
Budapest, Geneva, Warsaw, Vienna, Hamburg, Munich, Copenhagen, Hanover,
Zurich, Oslo, Helsinki and Karlovy Vary.
The airline's operational headquarters works 24 hours a day, with the
increased number of working officers, an Aeroflot source said. It works
with the Foreign Ministry and the federal border guard service to settle
issues to accommodate non-visa passengers and passengers with expired
visas. Work is organised to accommodate passengers in hotels and provide
them with meals.
In the situation all passengers can change tickets for other Aeroflot
flights from Europe without additional payment.
Passengers also can return tickets without fine payments irrespective
of the return date. The fare money is returned only at the office where
the ticket was bought.
Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport accounts for most of the flights
cancelled because of the volcano eruption.
According to the latest Rosaviation agency data, a total of 258
flights are cancelled -- Sheremetyevo accounts for 142, Domodedovo for 72
and St. Petersburg's Pulkovo for 28.
Moscow's Vnukovo has cancelled eight flights. Yekaterinburg
(Koltsovo), Rostov-on-Don and Samara (Kuryumoch) have also cancelled
flights to Europe (two in each). One is cancelled in Novosibirsk
(Tolmachovo) and one in Tyumen (Roshchino).
Fourteen flights are delayed -- nine in Sheremetyevo, two in Vnukovo
and three in Rostov-on-Don.
Over 15,000 people could not fly to European countries according to
schedule.
There is no accumulation of passengers at airports. Most of them have
returned or changed tickets or are accommodated at hotels to wait for
their flights, the source said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry is sure Russians who have to remain at
European airports will have no visa problems. Ministry spokesman Igor
Lyakin, describing the situation caused by the Icelandic volcano eruption
as a force-majeure circumstance, said that Russians who have expiring
visas will not have problems because of this, since they are not illegal
migrants, but have got into the situation due to the circumstance.
Aeroflot sources said on Saturday that the airline would organise
additional flights to open European cities. As of 12:00 on Saturday,
airports of Madrid, Barcelona, Rome and Sofia remained opened, and the
airline provided planes with more seats for the flights.
-0-pan