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The warning level to aviation from Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano was lowered from “red” to “orange” over the weekend, easing fears of an eruption.
The instigation of a red warning on Saturday had led carriers including easyJet to instigate contingency plans.
But, while Iceland’s Met Office noted that an eruption “cannot be excluded”, the country’s Civil Protection Department took the decision to lower the alert on Sunday.
Sky News said the decision to remove the red alert was taken following two further earthquakes at the site.
Bardarbunga is Iceland’s largest volcanic system, but is in a different range to Eyjafjallajokull, which erupted in 2010 and threw up a massive ash cloud which caused huge disruption to air travel.
In a statement issued on Saturday, easyJet said: “Should there be an eruption, easyJet will work with its partners: Nicarnica, the Icelandic team in FutureVolc, Nilu (Norwegian Institute for Air Research) and Airbus to ensure that ash from it is detected and charted from space, using infrared cameras on European weather satellites, or through the potential airborne deployment of the AVOID ash detection technology.
“EasyJet will use this and other data provided by the authorities to determine what, if any, changes it should make to its flying programme.”