A jetliner from Vancouver became the first to land at England's Heathrow airport since a volcano erupted in Iceland last week, as Britain reopened its airspace and European air travel slowly picked up.
Some airline passengers were finally able to depart from Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport, from Amsterdam and other major European cities after a cloud of volcanic ash hovering above Europe paralyzed air traffic there.
Eurocontrol officials said they expected about half of the 27,500 flights above Europe would take to the skies Tuesday, a larger proportion than in recent days. The agency said flight schedules could return to normal by Friday.
"The situation today is much improved," Brian Flynn, Eurocontrol's deputy head of operations, said Tuesday.
"The outlook is that bit by bit, normal flights will be resumed in coming days."
Still, officials said it would likely take weeks before all the travellers stranded by the eruption could return home.
In Germany, airspace remained closed but about 800 planes were allowed to take off, flying at a low altitude.
Airlines have been extremely reluctant to fly in recent days after a large ash cloud -- created by the continued eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland -- drifted toward Europe and potentially put planes in jeopardy.
Volcanic ash poses a hazard for airplanes, as it can be sucked into jet engines where it can melt and then solidify. It can also cause visibility problems for pilots.
At present, the ash cloud is now spreading towards Greenland and the eastern coastline of Canada. But some of it was being pushed back towards Britain, courtesy of shifting winds, Icelandic scientists said.
Stranded passengers, lives on hold
Six days after the Eyjafjallajokull volcano first erupted, millions of passengers have been affected and an estimated 95,000 flights have been cancelled in the past week.
For the people stranded at airports around the world -- waiting to fly back home to Europe, or to catch a connecting flight to another destination -- the last few days have been tough.
In Tokyo, Italian citizen Patrizia Zotti had spent five days waiting to fly home with her six-month-old son. She was with her husband, who travelled home on a separate flight that was one of the last to land in Europe before its air space was closed off.
Due to fly home to Italy on Tuesday, Zotti said she was concerned about the ash cloud.
"I've read that the exploratory flights were safe, but I'm still a bit worried," said Zotti.
In Paris, 81-year-old Bob Basso has waited four days to return home to San Diego, California, along with his son.
Seeing a plane take off from Charles de Gaulle Airport on Tuesday morning led him and other stranded passengers to applaud what they saw.
"There's hope," said Basso, who was eating breakfast at a hotel when he saw the plane take off.
Toronto resident Al Ismaili has been stuck in London for several days.
Speaking to CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday morning, Ismaili said he hopes to fly home on Friday, if the air space opens up by then.
While he admits his odyssey has been frustrating, Ismaili said it is hard to find a person or organization to blame for the situation.
"Everyone is quite agitated by the situation, but in the end you have to decide who is at fault. Is really even anyone at fault?" he said.
Industry losses, safety concerns
It is estimated that the problems stemming from the ash cloud may have cost Europe's aviation industry at least US$1 billion to date.
While airlines have pushed to get their planes back in the air, pilots have sounded a note of caution about rushing back to service without ensuring that the skies are safe.
Some scientists have suggested that there is no consensus on how much ash is too dangerous for planes.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the international pilots' federation said the final decisions of whether flights are feasible should be left to the pilots themselves, who will consider the safety risks and not the economic ones.
Gideon Ewers, a spokesperson for the pilots group, said historical evidence suggests volcanic ash is a serious threat to flight safety.
With files from The Associated Press
