 A small number of flights have taken off from northern Europe after five days of inactivity caused by the spread of volcanic ash from Iceland. | |
Planes have been taking off from Paris, Madrid and Frankfurt - however many flights remain cancelled.
There are hopes that many routes within Europe will be able to resume operations on Tuesday.
But UK air traffic officials said a new ash cloud spreading from Iceland cast doubt on plans to reopen UK airspace.
The first flights have taken off from Scotland, and the flight ban has been lifted in the north of England.
But British Airways says it has cancelled all short-haul flights, after the UK air traffic control body, Nats, warned of more volcanic ash.
A spokesman for Belfast airport in Northern Ireland said it hoped to resume flights at 1000 BST (0900 GMT) but will wait for the latest advice from Nats.
Three zones
EU transport ministers proposed creating a core no-fly area, a limited-service zone and an open-skies area.
Dutch Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings said his country was "taking a lead" in restarting flights, but warned that further suspensions might prove necessary if the situation worsens.
Swiss and northern Italian airspace will reopen from 0600 GMT, and France is opening some air corridors to Paris.
But the skies over Germany are due to remain closed until 1200 GMT, with some exceptions.
 A KLM flight to New York was one of three to leave on Monday evening |
The BBC's Nik Gowing, at Frankfurt airport in Germany, says that several flights have arrived in the last hour from America and elsewhere, and that passengers reported a normal service on board.
But he says that out of 100 flights scheduled in the next 12 hours, some 95 have already been cancelled and he says the situation remains very fluid.
In Madrid, our correspondent Sarah Rainsford says that passengers have been arriving on time for their flights but have had to queue for several hours at the information desk to find alternative transport if their flights have been cancelled.
She says that on Monday dozens of coaches were laid on, taking people to Paris, Brussels, and Geneva - and this will be the case again on Tuesday if European airspace does not open up as expected.
The International Air Transport Association earlier labelled the chaos a mess and an embarrassment for Europe.
The body says its losses have soared over $1bn (£650m; 740m euros), since much of Europe's airspace was closed last week because of ash from southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajoekull volcano.
Scene at volcano amid 'new phase'
The European Union has admitted there were shortcomings in the way the decision to close parts of Europe's airspace was reached.
An official with the EU Transport Commission, Helen Kearns, said there was loose coordination in the decision-making process and that, working with the same scientific information, different countries had reached different conclusions.
She said, however, that in the future when deciding whether planes should be grounded, there'd be no change in the policy of putting safety first.
Warships deployed
Experts had earlier said the volcano - which erupted last Wednesday for the second time in a month - was now spewing more steam and less ash.
A US official said on Monday a Nato F-16 fighter jet had suffered engine damage after flying through the volcanic ash cloud.
In the high temperatures of an engine turbine, ash can turn to molten glass and cripple the engine.
Meanwhile, the UK deployed three Royal Navy warships to help pick up stranded passengers from Spain and the Channel ports.
In Spain, where all airports were open, the government offered to let Britain and other European countries use its airports as stopovers to get passengers moving again.
'No timer'
Airspace in Belgium and Denmark is also due to begin opening from Tuesday morning.
But Finland, Poland and Norway have shut their airports again.
Airports have already reopened in Austria, Estonia, Hungary and Turkey.
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said the bloc's economy would suffer badly if the disruption continued for a long time.
"What makes me a little bit afraid is that there is no timer on this volcano," he told news agency Reuters.
The shroud of fine mineral dust particles from the volcano has spread from the Arctic Circle in the north to the French Mediterranean coast in the south, and from Spain into Russia.
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