Air traffic across the continent has been paralysed by the imposition of a massive no-fly zone amid fears the ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano could be sucked into aircraft engines, causing them to fail.
It was the first time "within living memory" a natural disaster had caused Britain to close its air space, a spokeswoman for the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) said.
The closure of London's Heathrow Airport from 5am NZT has resulted in Air New Zealand cancelling today's (April 15 UK time) NZ1 London to Auckland flight via Los Angeles, and the NZ38 London to Auckland via Hong Kong flight.
NZ39 from Hong Kong to London has been diverted to Frankfurt, Germany, with passengers accommodated in hotels.
In order to keep up-to-date with the situation, Air New Zealand said passengers should check the airline's website, call 0800 737 000, or check with their travel agent.
The disruption could last at least two days and a leading volcano expert said the ash could present intermittent problems to air traffic for six months if the eruption continued.
The volcano began erupting on Wednesday for the second time in a month, hurling a plume of ash six to 11 kilometres into the atmosphere. The ash cloud spread south east overnight.
French airports were closing, with Brussels, Amsterdam and Geneva airports saying they had cancelled a large number of flights.
In 1982, a British Airways jumbo jet lost power in all its engines when it flew into an ash cloud over Indonesia, gliding towards the ground before it was able to restart its engines.
The incident prompted the aviation industry to rethink the way it prepared for ash clouds, resulting in international contingency plans which were activated yesterday.
