TRAVELLERS and holiday-makers in the South West faced fresh misery yesterday as all flights out of most airports in the region were grounded because of the volcanic ash.

Bristol airport was closed until 1pm yesterday with 75 flights being cancelled, affecting about 11,000 customers.

Airports across much of the country have been subjected to closures since Sunday, with many across Britain still shut.

Cardiff Airport flights were cancelled yesterday morning, with others reporting delays.

All flights in Northern Ireland and much of Scotland have been grounded until 1pm. Glasgow, Manchester and Stansted airports remain open.

The country’s two biggest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, reopened at 7am yesterday but were only operating limited flight schedules and warned that delays and cancellations were likely.

Chris Alexandrou, 51, from Old Town, was caught up in the problems a few weeks ago when his flight home from Malaga was delayed by three days.

He said: “It is one of those situations were everyone is angry but there is no-one to be angry with. Unfortunately there are no protocols in place to deal with something like this – the airlines have to play it safe and people are ok with that.

“I think this is going to rumble on for months and will play havoc with summer holidays.”

Nats, the air traffic control authority, yesterday said the London airports were clear of the no-fly zone but restrictions would be put in place “due to their close proximity to the no-fly zone, particularly affecting Gatwick inbounds.”

The Department of Transport has warned there may be restrictions across different parts of the UK until later today when a change in wind direction is expected to blow the ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano away from Britain.