Volcanic ash from Icland's Grimsvotn volcano that forced airport closures in northern Germany blew further north and east Wednesday, allowing air traffic to resume.
Although European air traffic controllers said they anticipated about 700 flights to be canceled on Wednesday, Eurocontrol noted that activity from Grimsvotn has dropped off sharply and that traffic in European airspace should return to normal by Thursday.
"There were very few eruptions by the volcano over the last six to 12 hours so the volcano is in a reasonably calm state at the moment," Brian Flynn, head of network operations for Eurocontrol told the Associated Press. "Assuming that continues, we would expect that the European aviation would be able to return to almost a normal situation within the next 24 hours.
Pall Einarsson, from the University of Iceland, told AP that observers at Grimsvotn's crater were reporting only steam.
Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurardottir, after touring the region around Grimsvotn on Tuesday, said in a statement that "The worst is over. Our geoscientists say that the eruption is waning day by day and that the problems arising in our neighboring countries as a result of volcanic ash should be resolved quickly."
Grimsvotn began erupting on Saturday, sending clouds of ash high into the air.
