Britain's airspace and its flagship airport, Heathrow, have reopened, ending an unprecedented shutdown sparked by safety fears over a massive cloud of volcanic ash.
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Heathrow, airport - the biggest and busiest in Europe - re-opened just before 10pm on Tuesday,(0700 Wednesday AEST), after flights were grounded for five days.
Safety watchdog the Civil Aviation Authority said the lifting of flight ban came after experts studied the Icelandic cloud and aircraft manufacturers "agreed increased tolerance levels in low ash density areas".
There could still be some "no-fly zones" where concentrations of ash are at unsafe levels, but the CAA added these would be "very much smaller than the present restrictions".
"The Met Office (weather forecasting service) advise that the 'no-fly zones' do not currently cover the UK," it added.
Britain's airspace was closed entirely at midday (1100 GMT) last Thursday, as a result of a plume of volcanic ash from Iceland's erupting Eyjafjoell volcano.
The ash cloud prompted countries across Europe to close down their skies in the biggest aerial shutdown since World War II, leaving travellers stranded.
Millions of travellers stranded Much of Europe eased its aerial lockdown on Tuesday, with almost half of its scheduled flights taking to the skies, allowing long-delayed passengers to continue their journeys.
"I've never been so happy in my life going back home," said Shahriar Ravari from San Diego in the US, who was waiting at a Paris airport for a flight to Los Angeles with the end of his travel nightmare in sight.
"I love France but to be going home is something else."
Millions of people have been stranded across the globe since Europe began shutting down airspace on April 14.
The world association of airlines, IATA, says the crisis is costing the industry $US200 million a day.
Eurocontrol, the body coordinating air traffic control across the region, said almost three-quarters of European airspace was open late Tuesday but less than half of scheduled flights were set to take place.
Airlines under pressure
All airspace above 20,000 feet (6,096 metres) altitude was open for flights except in the skies over Finland, the statement said.
Eurocontrol added that it "expects 13,000 flights to take place today in European airspace. On a normal Tuesday, we would expect 28,000."
Airlines such as British Airways and Germany's Lufthansa have been at the forefront of pressure for an immediate reopening of the airspace and had hoped that Tuesday would mark the beginning of the end of the crisis.
In Iceland itself, police said the plume of ash from the Eyjafjoell volcano was diminishing but warned that there was "still considerable volcanic activity at the site and three seemingly separate craters are still erupting".
The World Meteorological Organisation said the ash cloud was expected to head towards the Arctic when the weather changes later in the week.
The shutdown meant top footballers Barcelona had to travel by bus to Milan for a Champions League semi-final while German carmaker BMW had to partially halt production because spare parts had not arrived.
