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American cancels 56 European flights on Saturday

17 April 2010 18:41 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. airlines said many flights heading to or from Europe remained canceled on Saturday due to the volcanic ash cloud that has spread farther across Europe, APA reports quoting Reuters.
The huge cloud halted most European flights and stranded thousands of passengers as an Icelandic volcano continued to erupt.
American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp, canceled 56 flights to and from Europe on Saturday, a spokeswoman said. The airline had also canceled 56 flights on Friday.
American was operating flights into and out of Spain and Italy on Saturday, while flights departing from or headed to other parts of Europe remain canceled, the spokeswoman said.
Each day, U.S.-based carriers operate about 337 passenger and cargo flights between the United States and Europe. On Friday, about 280 of those flights were canceled according to the Air Transport Association of America.
U.S. airlines alerted passengers that many flights would not take off and suggested that travelers try to rebook online to avoid lengthy delays at airports and over their phone systems.
Representatives for Continental Airlines Inc, Delta Air Lines Inc and United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp, could not be immediately reached for comment on Saturday morning.
U.S. carriers have not yet said what kind of financial impact the flight cancellations may have. For now, they are not charging passengers to make changes to their travel plans.