The first flights from Australia bound for Europe are on their way this morning after a five-day airspace shut-down due to a massive volcanic ash cloud.
Qantas says the grounding of its flights in Sydney, Melbourne and Asian hubs has cost it up to 10 million dollars so far.
Chief executive Alan Joyce whose airline won't begin moving passengers from Australia until later today says it will take a week to clear a massive backlog of travellers stranded by the event.
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It comes after Europe's airspace was reopened with all its major airports resuming operations.
The crisis was caused by an Icelandic volcano that spread ash over most of Europe and much of the Atlantic.
Meanwhile,experts in Iceland say the Eyjafjjoell volcano has lost most of its fury.
Also, Singapore Airlines flight SQ222 was the first Europe-bound flight to leave Sydney yesterday afternoon.
