Brits still stuck despite flights

Britons still stranded abroad after Europe's skies reopened are facing the prospect that they could be stuck for another week.

Travel chiefs bemoaned "a significant lack of air capacity" to beat the backlog of travellers waiting to get back after the volcanic ash brought European flights into meltdown.

With flights expected to run normally, Abta said it aimed to have repatriated more than 100,000 British passengers by the end of this weekend.

Mark Tanzer, Abta chief executive, said: "While most flights are back to normal, and most stranded British passengers will be back by the end of this weekend, there is still quite a high level of disruption in some destinations.

"In some areas of the world, there is a significant lack of air capacity to enable British people to be returned quickly."

Meanwhile, the RAF's Typhoon Eurofighters were given the all clear after tests showed volcanic ash found in engines caused no damage.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) received further assurances on British air safety from military chiefs as the £69 million jets were given the green light to take off again after being temporarily grounded.

The RAF's discovery of ash in engines during post-flight inspections on Wednesday led to checks of the entire fleet at RAF Coningsby.

It came just days after UK skies were reopened following an Icelandic volcanic ash cloud which halted all flights over the UK for almost a week.

The only remaining disruption was in parts of northern Scotland and the Orkney and Shetland islands where the lingering ash cloud affected services out of Kirkwall, Stornoway, Wick and Inverness airports.