A number of flights from New York were diverted to Glasgow and Prestwick overnight while restrictions to parts of Scottish airspace were temporarily suspended and passengers were offered ground transport to London.

Budget carrier Ryanair said all its scheduled flights to and from the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, northern France, northern Germany, Poland and the Baltic States have been halted until 1pm on Monday.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis yesterday warned it was 'likely that significant disruption to most UK air services' would continue for 'at least the next 48 hours'.

Channel Tunnel high-speed train company Eurostar reported that its 58 services were full yesterday.
This meant the company was able to handle more than 46,000 passengers on its trains running between London, Paris and Brussels.

Many people took to ferries to reach the Continent

Minicab company Addison Lee said it had received requests for journeys to cities as far away as Paris, Milan, Amsterdam and Zurich.

One group of businessmen paid a taxi driver £700 to take them from Belfast to London after being stranded by flight disruption.

A British businessman stranded in France last night said he was forced to buy a women's bicycle to board a ferry in a bid to get home for his wife's birthday.

Tom Noble, 52, from Highgate in north London, said ferry operator Norfolkline had no foot passenger tickets left and would only allow him to make the journey if he was a genuine cyclist.

Two flights arrived at Glasgow airport this morning and passengers were taken by bus to onward destinations in Manchester and London.

An airport spokesman said the terminal was quiet, with only 'dozens' of hopeful passengers remaining.

'Very few people are here, in fact there are probably more BAA volunteer staff than passengers,' the spokesman said.

Fruit and vegetables including lettuce, grapes, spring onions and asparagus may be missing from many supermarket shelves next week and firms specialising in flying in produce from overseas are also warning of higher prices.

The transport giant Norbert Dentressangle said activity at its perishable air freight handling centre at Heathrow, the UK's largest, was at a standstill.

The result will be a three-day shortfall in the supply of products including prepacked fruit salads and flowers.

It said that while there are enough products on shelves and in warehouses to see stores through the weekend, supermarkets will be 'severely impacted' next week.

Some desperate travellers were paying hundreds of pounds for taxis to bring them back via ferries from Ireland or to take them into Europe.

Forecasters say there is no imminent change in the wind direction to blow the vast cloud away from Britain and large swathes of northern Europe.

Day three of the chaos caused by the Mount Eyjafjallokull eruption saw the first reports of volcanic ash settling in the UK, as World Health Organisation officials suggested people consider wearing masks if they venture outside.

And as Transport Secretary Lord Adonis told travellers to expect ' significant disruption' for at least 48 hours, the cost to airlines alone was put at an astonishing £200million a day.

The assessment of the huge scale of the travel disruption came from the Association of British Travel Agents, which said as many as 150,000 people a day will have left the country in the seven days leading up to the blanket ban on air travel.

A spokesman said: 'We estimate there could be as many as a million British people stranded abroad.'

The majority were stuck in Europe, with Spain particularly popular at this time of year. More than 100 flights were cancelled at Malaga airport on the Costa del Sol. Others are stranded in North America and may have to wait well into next week to return.

Eurocontrol, the organisation in charge of Europe's airspace, said it will hold crisis talks on Monday as more countries closed down national airspace and the volcanic ash cloud continued its south-eastern sweep 35,000 feet above the continent.

Only 12,000 to 13,000 European flights operating yesterday instead of the 29,500 anticipated.

Pilots have reported smelling sulphur dioxide, a gas released by volcanoes, in cockpits, and scientists said traces of volcanic dust on the ground had been found in Sunderland, Sheffield, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Lerwick.

The World Health Organisation said Europeans should try to stay indoors if ash starts falling from the sky.

A spokesman said the microscopic ash was potentially dangerous because inhaled particles can reach the lungs and cause respiratory problems. There is a heightened risk for those with asthma and respiratory diseases.

And while airlines are re-booking and refunding customers, critics accused insurance firms of dragging their feet in deciding whether they would compensate travellers or invoke catchall 'Act of God' clauses to escape a pay-out.