Clear skies are expected to ensure swift departures for the big half-term getaway from Leeds-Bradford International Airport next week – despite the threat of volcanic ash.

The airport’s commercial director Tony Hallwood said the airport was continuing to gear itself up for the holiday exodus which is up four per cent on the same time last year.

Yesterday, four early flights to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Belfast were cancelled due to the volcanic cloud and coaches of passengers from Edinburgh were being bussed to the Yeadon airport for an alternative start to their Jet2 holidays in Spain and Portugal.

Mr Hallwood said: “They were given a warm Yorkshire welcome. This shows we are working hard with our airlines to make sure we can use Leeds-Bradford as an alternative gateway.

Live traffic and travel

“Over the next two to three days, depending on wind direction, we believe there should be clear skies for Yorkshire and people should be making their travel arrangements as normal. If anything changes we will let everyone know as quickly as we can.

“For half-term we are remaining confident the big get-away will get away. We’ve seen a growth of passengers on this time last year by about four per cent.

“We’ve got more destinations than ever before this year from Leeds-Bradford and we are ready to welcome people at the start of their well-deserved holidays.”

Since the Icelandic volcano erupted on Saturday, travel from other airports around the UK has been thrown into disarray.

  • Read the full story in Wednesday's T&A