Today the EU is composed of 27 separate airspaces and "the decision to close or reopen it lies only with national governments," as a European Commission official said.

There are clear historic reasons, linked with national defence. Few governments want someone else to tell them when to shut down their airports.

Even Eurocontrol, the intergovernmental organisation for air security and navigation, which boasts 38 member nations, must content itself with attempting to coordinate national decisions rather than oversee them.

As for the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, no matter how much say it has on what happens on the ground it has very little say on what goes on above it.

IATA, the International Air Transport Association, summed it up succinctly on Monday as a "European embarrassment and... a European mess".

IATA director-general Giovanni Bisignani bemoaned the fact that "it took five days to organise a conference call with the ministers of transport," after flights were first cancelled last Thursday.

The accusation of tardiness is becoming increasingly familiar in Brussels, after similar charges in the wake of both man-made and natural disasters, such as the Greek economic crisis and the Haiti earthquake.

But it's a perennial problem for the European project; how can you have a pilot at the helm if everyone on board wants their own steering wheel?

Hundreds of thousands of air passengers remained stuck on the ground due to the ash cloud spewing from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, with others organising often very costly overland, and sea, routes home.

There was some good news for them Tuesday as European governments opened their airspace to some flights following the five day lockdown.

Eurocontrol said half of all scheduled European flights would take place, the best figures since last Thursday when the crisis erupted.

EU transport ministers, able to hold talks only by videoconference Monday, agreed there would be a shifting no-fly zone where the experts found high concentrations of the volcanic ash.

But as soon as they announced that decision, British air traffic chiefs warned the volcano had spewed a fresh cloud of ash, hitting hopes of a return to business as usual by Thursday.

The EU commission's director general for transport, Matthias Ruete, is backing the calls for a more coordinated response from Europe.

"Let's finally get the 'single sky' idea working," he said. That plan to have a European system rather than the aerial patchwork of 27 national administrators has been in the air for years but remains grounded due to governments' fears of a loss of sovereignty.

"Having the single sky system in place would have made it easier so there are discussions on going as to whether certain elements of that need to be fast-tracked," said EU transport spokeswoman Helen Kearns.

The message from transport ministers was "a more harmonised approach to managing airspace is essential so I think there will be a strong political will now to move forward with that faster," she added.

Ruete remains optimistic.

"I am very confident. We are going to develop a solution which will be a new step in the construction of a single European sky," he assured.

For the time being the ministers have agreed to better coordinate their actions to allow flights to resume progressively from Tuesday, volcano permitting.

Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas on Tuesday rejected criticism of the EU, precisely on the grounds that it doesn't make the decisions

"Aerospace is national competence, not the commission giving orders," he told the European parliament in Strasbourg as criticism mounted.

"To say that the European model completely failed is totally wrong," he said. The eruption in Iceland "is an extraordinary event."

earlier related report
Europe allows some flights but ash prompts new delays
London (AFP) April 20, 2010 - Europe eased its aerial lockdown Tuesday with almost half of its scheduled flights taking to the skies, but more ash from Iceland's billowing volcano prolonged the agony of most stranded passengers.

Although the eruption of ash which has blackened the skies around the Eyjafjoell volcano lost some of its fury, plumes which headed towards Britain meant the runways at the continent's busiest airport remained closed.

As some countries including France, Germany and Belgium allowed a gradual resumption of flights, passengers lucky enough to get a ticket home spoke of their utter joy.

"I've never been so happy in my life going back home," said Shahriar Ravari from San Diego, 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 and the world association of airlines, IATA, says the crisis is costing the industry 200 million dollars a day.

Spain's European minister Diego Lopez Garrido whose country currently presides the EU meanwhile rejected criticism that EU members lost precious time before coordinating the reopening of some countries' airspace.

"I think the European Union responded well to this huge crisis," he told journalists.

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.

"Almost 75 percent of the total continent area is free of any restrictions," Eurocontrol said.

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.

While several smaller airports in Britain did resume operations, London Heathrow -- Europe's biggest -- remained closed.

Britain's Civil Aviation Authority on Tuesday ordered a phased reopening of much of the country's airspace from 10:00 pm (2100 GMT).

German authorities extended the no-fly period to 0000 GMT Wednesday but pilots will be granted permission to fly visually.

Lufthansa said it planned to carry more than 15,000 passengers on some 200 flights, around 11 percent of its normal daily schedule.

Airspace over northern Italy slowly reopened with the flights leaving Rome and Milan. Flights also began landing at Belgian airports. Norway reopened all of its airspace until at least 1800 GMT Tuesday.

In France Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said 30 percent of scheduled national and international flights would fly from Paris airports.

Most passengers stranded outside France would be repatriated within 48 hours, according to Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo.

Ireland and Sweden were among the countries that kept their airspace closed.

Denmark said it would temporarily reopen most of its airspace and airports, including Scandinavia's largest airport in Copenhagen, from 0000 GMT to 0600 GMT Wednesday.

Finland's airports will remain closed until 9:00 am (0600 GMT) Wednesday, airport operator Finavia said, extending a previous forecast.

Commercial traffic in Finnish airspace was also halted.

Authorities however said late Tuesday they would open airspace at altitudes above 9,500 metres (31,000 feet) for international traffic overflights until 9:00 am (0600 GMT) Thursday.

Australia's Qantas Airways extended its ban on flights to and from Europe for another 24 hours but Air China said it had resumed routes between Beijing and destinations including Moscow, Stockholm and Rome.

South African Airways cancelled what was to be its first flight to London since Wednesday.

The US government meanwhile said it had no plans to evacuate Americans stranded in Europe, saying the "cost to travelers to repay an evacuation loan would be equivalent to the commercial rates for cross-Atlantic sea travel."

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 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.

The start of the world chess final between Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov and Indian champion Viswanathan Anand on Wednesday will not be postponed due to the ash cloud, organisers said.

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