British Airways last night cancelled all flights between London and Scotland until 2pm today.
Between 30 and 40 BA flights will be affected from airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and London City to and from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The airline runs 80 flights a day between these airports.
Royal Dutch Airlines KLM cancelled the 16 flights scheduled for this morning to and from Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle.
The airlines said customers on any cancelled flights will be able to claim a full refund or rebook on to alternative flights – and that all other flights will operate as scheduled.
A BA spokesman said: ‘We would urge customers not to travel to the airport if their flight has been cancelled.’
At least 36 flights were cancelled in Scotland last night and today, as airports across Britain were put on stand-by for imminent disruption.
Easy Jet, Aer Lingus, Flybe, KLM, Logan Air and Eastern Airways have all cancelled flights to and from Scotland.
Ryan Air has been ordered by the Irish Aviation Authority to cancel flights to and from Glasgow, Prestwick, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
Easy Jet said today it had cancelled flights to and from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen between 5am and 1pm today.
In a statement, the airline said: 'The CAA and the Met Office's Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre are predicting that it is likely that there will be a high density ash cloud over Scotland from this morning.
'As a result of this the Civil Aviation Authority has declared a temporary danger area over Scotland from 01.00 to 13.00 hours.
'In light of this information, Easy Jet has cancelled flights to and from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen, operating between 05.00 hours and 13.00 hours.
'We therefore strongly advise that all passengers check the status of their flight at easyJet.com before travelling to the airport.
'For cancelled flights, easyJet offers its passengers the option of transferring their flight free of charge or a refund on the internet.
'While the circumstances are outside of the airline's control, easyJet apologises for any inconvenience caused and would like to reassure passengers that we are doing everything possible to minimise the disruption.'
By noon today, the Met Office forecasts that the cloud will have swept south, covering most of England and Wales with low concentrations of ash. Medium concentrations of ash – the level where aircraft need permission to fly from the CAA – may affect Newcastle airport.
But as a string of carriers announced cancellations, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said Britons 'have got to learn' to live with chaos caused by volcanic activity in Iceland.
'My understanding is that we have gone through an unusually quiet period for volcanic eruptions in Iceland over the last 20-odd years and we are moving into a period when there is likely to be significantly more volcanic activity,' he told the BBC.
'So this is clearly something we have got to learn to plan around. We have got to learn to live with it.'
But he insisted there were now 'much more robust systems' to 'minimise the disruptive effect'.
Since last year's eruption, the authorities have gained a 'much better understanding' of the risk from ash clouds and are able to assess the thickness of different patches as well as the possibility of flying over or below a cloud, he said.
'Most importantly, the basic situation now is that the threshold for most aircraft is 20 times where it was last year. We have got from 200 microgrammes per cubic metre to 4,000 microgrammes per cubic metre as the threshold up to which most aircraft can fly.
'What we can't promise is that there won't be disruption when there is a major natural event like this.'
However, he insisted the airlines were 'making the decisions'.
'They have looked at the projections for tomorrow and said `This is not something we can fly in'.
'If they wanted to make a safety case to fly in the conditions that are modelled for tomorrow, they would have to put forward a safety case to the CAA that would then consider it.'
By David Derbyshire and Ray Massey
