Flights still grounded by volcano eruption

All 250 flights scheduled to leave Birmingham Airport were grounded today on the second day of a no-fly zone imposed after the huge volcanic ash cloud which erupted in Iceland.

The few passengers spoke of their misery as the airport was mainly deserted. The check-in desks were unmanned and the information boards all read cancelled as hopeful travellers were sent away.

The 250 flights which had been scheduled to take off today would have carried 25,000 passengers. Around the same amount were cancelled yesterday.

Justine Hunt, spokeswoman for Birmingham International Airport, said: "People are being told to stay at home, don't just turn up at the airport, check with your airline first."

Among the people at the airport were Joanne and Craig Loughran from Corby, Northamptonshire. They got married on Wednesday and were due to fly off on their honeymoon to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt yesterday morning. They stayed in the Holiday Inn at the airport overnight in the hope they could leave today..

Warehouse worker Craig aged 26 said: "They've told us we might go at 10.15am tomorrow, but they told us that yesterday, we don't want to waste another day, we were only going for a week. We booked it back in January. We're absolutely gutted."

Joanne, 25, added: "We're not sure about our insurance because this is an act of God we don't know where we stand. I'm 13 weeks pregnant so I wanted to go now before I started showing. I suppose we'll just try and re-book for next week."

Jed Young, 55, from Hatfield in Worcester, was also waiting at the airport with his wife Lynda. He said: "We were meant to be going to the Algarve in Portugal for two weeks. We got here at 4am yesterday morning to be told we can't fly.

"We managed to get a room in the hotel across the road and came back at 4am this morning to be told our flight was cancelled. Our son dropped us so we haven't got any way of getting back. We had to wait for at least a civilised time to call him to get him to pick us up.

"Thompson have told us to cancel our holiday. I feel tired more than anything. This isn't anybody's fault, do I can't be annoyed at anybody."

Professor Marilyn Martin-Jones, professor of languages for the University of Birmingham, said: "I was due to fly out today to be the keynote speaker at a linguistics conference in Thessaloniki in Greece.

"I was meant to fly today to speak at the conference at 11.30am tomorrow but it's not happening, I feel more frustration than anything. I tried to phone the airline to check but it was impossible so I thought I would come down and see what was happening."

Meanwhile, Midland holidaymakers are stuck abroad. Tony Hanson, from Ward Street, Coseley, has been on holiday with his wife Lynne, and in-laws Peter and Wendy Baranek and their 10-year-old son Stefan, for the past week.

They were supposed to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai with Emirates yesterday, then from Dubai into Birmingham landing at midday on Sunday.

They have now been told that the earliest possible flight back is on April 27 and they will have to pay for a £150 a night hotel in the meantime.

Speaking to the Express & Star from Kuala Lumpur, Tony, a 41-year-old carpenter, said: "It's absolutely awful, people are arguing in the airport, no-one knows what's going on.

"We've tried to get hotels earlier and they were all full, nothing has been organised, and no-one knows what they are doing."

Former Wolves and Villa winger Steve Froggatt and his family are among the thousands of Brits waiting to come home.

Steve, wife Julie and their two children are on holiday in Tenerife and should have flown back to their home in Shenstone, near Lichfield, yesterday.

"We were supposed to fly back last night but we're stranded here now not knowing when the flights will be going back home," said the 37-year-old.