Travel Mole reports that thousands of UK passengers feared their 30th May bank holiday weekend plans would be brought into chaos after predictions that the ash cloud that brought air travel to a standstill over Scotland on Tuesday and Germany on Wednesday would cover all of the UK on Friday. 

Currently, planes are not allowed to fly beneath ash clouds. But new rules will see planes altering their flight paths and taking longer to make a full ascent to 30,000 if an ash cloud is present.

An ash cloud will still see some services cancelled – because there won’t be enough air space for all flights to alter trajectories – but substantially more flights would be able to take off under the new ruling.

The new guidelines will also see the Met Office and the CAA sharing their information more readily to establish the best intelligence possible.