Airports reopening but delays persist

AIRPORTS are gradually starting to reopen today, but airlines say it will be several days yet before services can return to normal.

Ecology and Transport Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said the return of flights would be very gradual and controlled. About 75% of international flights are running today at the main Paris airports.

Lyon reopened last night and Nantes, Orly and Charles de Gaulle were back up and running this morning. Other airports in the north of France will follow.

Aéroports de Paris said passengers must check with their airline before turning up at the airport.

A number of "air corridors" have been set up, linking Paris with big regional airports including Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nantes, Lyon, Marseille and Nice.

Test flights along the corridors are being carried out this morning ahead of commercial flights throughout the day.

The routes are designed to get stranded passengers from abroad who were rerouted to southern airports to get back to Paris and north.

UK airspace is gradually reopening between now and this evening, however British Airways has cancelled its short-haul flights today between the UK and France.

Air France - which says it is losing €35m a day from the disruption - will be running all of its long-haul flights out of Paris as normal today.

Check your flight at www.airfrance.fr or send the flight number by text to 63654.

Easyjet says it will not be running any services to the UK until later today.

It is urging passengers not to phone the call centre, as operators have no more information than what is already available on the website.

The budget airline has also scrapped online check-in. Every passenger must check-in at the desk when they get to the airport.

Easyjet said this would allow staff to make sure that as many stranded passengers could get on to available flights.

Eurostar has freed up extra capacity on the Paris-London route this week to help passengers get home, although they are selling fast.

Norfolkline, which does not normally take foot passengers on its Dover-Dunkirk route, is running a coach service for passengers who need to cross the channel by ferry.

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Some useful numbers and links (dialling from France)

SNCF: 0805 90 36 35
Eurolines: 0892 89 90 91
Aéroports de Paris: 3950
Air France: 3654
Easyjet
Norfolkline: +44 208 127 8303