European airlines will have flown about half of scheduled flights by the end of Tuesday, the Eurocontrol agency says. Some flights have been departing from Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, after five days of disruption caused by the spread of Icelandic volcanic ash. But major flight restrictions remain in place across most of the UK, Ireland, Finland, Germany and Poland. The eruption appears to be waning, but there have been reports of a new ash cloud heading towards mainland Europe. Scientists say southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano is producing more lava, although the ash plume is now shrinking. 'Cries of joy' Brussels-based Eurocontrol says some 14,000 of Europe's 27,500 daily flights were expected to fly on Tuesday. The air traffic agency said it was optimistic the situation would be back to normal in a few days' time. It also said more than 95,000 flights had been cancelled since last Thursday, a day after the volcano erupted for the second time in a month. Weary passengers cheered and clapped as flights took off from airports such as Paris and Amsterdam, where flights resumed late on Monday. "Everyone was screaming in the airplane from happiness," one passenger who flew from the Dutch capital to New York told the news agency AP. Norway's airport authority reopened all of the country's airspace on Tuesday afternoon until midnight. Elsewhere in Scandinavia, airports in north-central Sweden were operating, Denmark's airspace was open to long-haul flights, but Finland's was shut. Germany's DFS air safety agency said its flight ban would remain until 1800 GMT, although 800 flights would be allowed to fly visually at lower altitudes, reports news agency AFP. The UK's air traffic control authority, Nats, said on Tuesday afternoon that much of Britain would remain a no-fly zone until at least 0100 on Wednesday. Only airspace in most of Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England will be open. Nearly 300 British holiday-makers marooned in Santander, northern Spain, found a novel way to get home when they were picked up by a Royal Navy warship. Poland, which had reopened four airports on Monday, closed them again on Tuesday. The Irish Aviation Authority said Shannon airport in the west was reopening, but the airports in Dublin and Cork remained shut. Swiss and northern Italian airspace has also reopened. The Swiss authorities said test flights had shown the ash in the sky posed no threat to aircraft. Flights have resumed out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, which are operating at about 30% capacity. Source: BBC