Russian airports cancel 500 flights due to volcanic ash

The Sheremetyevo airport cancelled 286 flights and delayed another 59, the Domodedovo airport cancelled 48 and delayed 28, and Vnukovo cancelled nine and delayed two. The Pulkovo airport in St.Petersburg cancelled 141 flights, the Rosaviatsiya air transport agency reported as of 10:00, Moscow time.

Elsewhere in the country, airlines canceled or delayed flights, including at the airports of Kaliningrad, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Murmansk and Voronezh.

According to Roaviatsiya, the number of passengers stranded at these airports is not large.

Other Russian airports are operating in usual mode, it said.

Meanwhile, the Irkutsk region department for hydrometeorology and environmental monitoring told Tass that the cloud of volcanic ash drifting from Iceland, has been circumventing the province, due to the zone of high atmospheric pressure which set over the western, central, and southern districts, as well as over Lake Baikal and the upper reaches of the river Lena.

The department believes the volcanic ash will continue to drift toward the Pacific Ocean, but it not expected to seriously affect the population. Its influence will be weakening as its concentration in the atmosphere diminishes, Kazinform cites Itar-Tass. See www.itar-tass.com for full version.