As AERBT is published at one minute past midnight, British Summer Time, Monday 17 May 2010, the United Kingdom, and many parts of Europe are yet again under the shadow of volcanic activity in Iceland.

Ministers agreed on Saturday that five-day ash prediction charts would be made available on the Met Office website and these would be updated every six hours.  The Department for Transport said in a statement: "Within this timeframe, different parts of UK airspace – including airspace in the south east – are likely to be closed at different times."

Meanwhile, Italy has fined Ryanair €3m (£2.5m) for failing to help some passengers after cancelling their flights during the crisis.

National Rail has said that it would postpone engineering work if necessary to allow more trains to be run.

Readers are advised to carefully follow airline websites and monitor any flights they are booked on.  Airlines are operating a NO FEE policy to re-book cancelled services, but some sites are easier to use than others. www.metoffice.gov.uk

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