By Aaron Gray-Block and Greg Roumeliotis
AMSTERDAM, April 19 (Reuters) - Three passenger flights took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Monday after a decision by EU ministers to reopen parts of the continent's airspace in order to ease the chaos caused by the volcanic ash crisis.
Almost 800 passengers were on board the three flights bound for New York, Shanghai and Dubai.
Running for his flight, a man who had tears in his eyes told a Reuters photographer: 'I'm just so happy.'
Many had been stranded since the ash from Icelandic volcano began spreading across of northern Europe late last week.
'I'm more than ready. I've been here since Thursday, so I'm ready to go,' one male passenger told public broadcaster NOS.
Under pressure from airlines losing $250 million a day, the European Union agreed on Monday to reduce the size of the no-fly zone.
'We are taking the lead on this,' Dutch Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings told an Amsterdam press conference.
'But from tomorrow there will also be lots of other airports that will start allowing flights.'
Eurlings said Europe would now be divided into three zones, a flight ban zone, a zone where there was a low amount of ash and a zone where there was no ash.
He said the Netherlands was currently in a zone with a low concentration of ash particles and Dutch flights would resume in daylight and with reduced capacity to ensure safety, but he also warned the airspace could be closed again if ash levels rise.
'NOT ADVENTURERS'
KLM said half of its European flights would resume on Tuesday, excluding the Nordic ciountries and parts of Britain. It will also carry out 50 intercontinental flights with partners.
'Our main concern is to get passengers on their way,' KLM
spokeswoman Saskia Kranendonk said.
Not everyone was happy, with one man saying to NOS: 'They say I do not have a ticket with KLM so they cannot fly. But ... you must first save the people, not check the company.'
KLM had already conducted two commercial freight flights and performed nine test flights on Sunday without problems.
'Our criticism was not on the closure of the airspace. Our criticism was that the airspace remained closed,' KLM Chief Executive Peter Hartman said. 'We are not adventurers.'
The volcanic ash over Europe has clouded KLM's prospects just as it saw traffic recover. According to KLM, March passenger traffic was up year-on-year by 4.7 percent while cargo traffic was up 2.1 percent.
Schiphol saw an 8.1 percent drop in passenger numbers and a 17.9 percent slump in cargo volumes in 2009 as a result of the economic downturn but still remains Europe's third-largest cargo airport and the fifth-largest passenger airport.
(Editing by Andrew Roche and Lin Noueihed) Keywords: EUROPE AIR/DUTCH/ (aaron.gray-block@thomsonreuters.com; +31 20 504 5001; Reuters Messaging: aaron.gray-block.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
AMSTERDAM, April 19 (Reuters) - Three passenger flights took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Monday after a decision by EU ministers to reopen parts of the continent's airspace in order to ease the chaos caused by the volcanic ash crisis.
Almost 800 passengers were on board the three flights bound for New York, Shanghai and Dubai.
Running for his flight, a man who had tears in his eyes told a Reuters photographer: 'I'm just so happy.'
Many had been stranded since the ash from Icelandic volcano began spreading across of northern Europe late last week.
'I'm more than ready. I've been here since Thursday, so I'm ready to go,' one male passenger told public broadcaster NOS.
Under pressure from airlines losing $250 million a day, the European Union agreed on Monday to reduce the size of the no-fly zone.
'We are taking the lead on this,' Dutch Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings told an Amsterdam press conference.
'But from tomorrow there will also be lots of other airports that will start allowing flights.'
Eurlings said Europe would now be divided into three zones, a flight ban zone, a zone where there was a low amount of ash and a zone where there was no ash.
He said the Netherlands was currently in a zone with a low concentration of ash particles and Dutch flights would resume in daylight and with reduced capacity to ensure safety, but he also warned the airspace could be closed again if ash levels rise.
'NOT ADVENTURERS'
KLM said half of its European flights would resume on Tuesday, excluding the Nordic ciountries and parts of Britain. It will also carry out 50 intercontinental flights with partners.
'Our main concern is to get passengers on their way,' KLM
spokeswoman Saskia Kranendonk said.
Not everyone was happy, with one man saying to NOS: 'They say I do not have a ticket with KLM so they cannot fly. But ... you must first save the people, not check the company.'
KLM had already conducted two commercial freight flights and performed nine test flights on Sunday without problems.
'Our criticism was not on the closure of the airspace. Our criticism was that the airspace remained closed,' KLM Chief Executive Peter Hartman said. 'We are not adventurers.'
The volcanic ash over Europe has clouded KLM's prospects just as it saw traffic recover. According to KLM, March passenger traffic was up year-on-year by 4.7 percent while cargo traffic was up 2.1 percent.
Schiphol saw an 8.1 percent drop in passenger numbers and a 17.9 percent slump in cargo volumes in 2009 as a result of the economic downturn but still remains Europe's third-largest cargo airport and the fifth-largest passenger airport.
(Editing by Andrew Roche and Lin Noueihed) Keywords: EUROPE AIR/DUTCH/ (aaron.gray-block@thomsonreuters.com; +31 20 504 5001; Reuters Messaging: aaron.gray-block.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.