The risk to air travel around Europe has escalated. Iceland has just raised its risk level for an eruption of its Bardarbunga volcano to orange, the second-highest level.<br /><br />Iceland’s met office said it has detected ongoing movement inside the volcano following an earthquake on Monday, the strongest quake in nearly 20 years.<br /><br />Residents were evacuated from the immediate area around the mountain as a precaution.<br /><br />If the Bardarbunga volcano does erupt, that may impact European air travel.<br /><br />Four years ago, it was a different eruption that caused chaos. An ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano shut down much of Europe’s airspace for around a week.<br /><br />The risk of an ash cloud this time round would depend on three main factors: how high any ash would be thrown, how much ash there would be, and how fine-grained it would be.<br /><br />Eurocontrol, the Brussels-based organisation responsible for European air safety, said in a statement that it was following the situation closely.
