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Shares in major European airlines have fallen as most UK flights remain grounded for a second day because of the volcanic ash in the atmosphere.In London, British Airways shares were down nearly 1% in the first hour of trading.
Meanwhile Germany's flag carrier Lufthansa was down 1.5% and Air France-KLM shares fell 1.8%.
Many German and French airports have been closed by authorities as the cloud of ash drifts south across Europe.
Impact spreads
Nearly all flights across the UK are to remain grounded on Friday, with the air traffic control body Nats having extended its restrictions on UK airspace until at least 0100BST on Saturday.
However, a small number of services will be permitted into and out of Northern Ireland and western Scotland.
Flights out of Frankfurt, Germany's busiest airport, have been temporarily halted because of the conditions, joining 10 other German airports.
Dozens of airports in France and Poland have also been closed.
According to the European airspace controller Eurocontrol, about 17,000 flights are expected to be cancelled on Friday.
Shares fell as investors worried about the impact the problems could have on the airline industry.
But Douglas McNeill, a transport analyst at Charles Stanley Securities, said the financial impact would be small providing the stoppages were short-lived.
"Clearly if you aren't flying, you're not generating revenue from passengers," he told the BBC.
"For a large network carrier like BA or Lufthansa your talking about £10m a day - but that's of limited commercial significance.
"A couple of days like this won't matter too much. If it goes on for weeks, that's a different story."
His sentiments were echoed by Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight, who said that the impact on the wider UK economy would be minimal assuming the stoppages were not prolonged.
"Some businesses will be affected by the inability for freight to get in and out of the country. But as long as the disruption is not too long, this should not be a major problem," he said.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.