Ash affects flights in Spain, Turkey, Morocco

Volcanic ash from Iceland wound its wayto North Africa and curled over to Turkey on Tuesday, forcing authorities to shut down Casablanca airport in Morocco as well as airports in Spain and airspace over Turkey.

Tenairports in Morocco, among them Casablanca, Rabat-Sale, Tangiers, Fez, Agadir and Essaouira almost all major tourist stops were being closed until at least 7 a.m. Wednesday local time (2a.m. ET).

Airports in Morocco were closed Tuesday afternoon "to guarantee a maximum level of security for passengers," the Moroccan civil aviation authorities said.

Morocco's airports were not affected last month when the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokul volcano forced a five-day suspension of air traffic in Europe.

The ash was also causing havoc Tuesday in Spain, forcing airports to shut down in the Canary islands of Tenerife, La Palma and La Gomera, affecting dozens of tourist flights. On the Spanish mainland, airports at Seville and Jerez in the south and Badajoz in the east were closed.

Up to 20 Spanish airports, including international hub at Barcelona, had to close over the weekend because of the ash.

Flights west and southwest of Istanbul were suspended for several hours Tuesday afternoon due to the ash cloud, and air traffic washalted over Turkey's Thrace region west of Istanbul and the Dardanelles Strait.

Istanbul's two airports remained open, but international flights from Europe were likely to be affected.

Elsewhere, dense ash over the middle of the North Atlantic which caused severe flight disruptions over the weekend was dispersing, easing the need to reroute transatlantic flights, the Eurocontrol air traffic control agency reported.

Approximately 29,000 flights were operating Tuesday in Europe, about normal for this time of year, according to the Brussels-based agency.

Meteorologists say that until the volcano in southern Iceland stops erupting, aviation in Europe will beaffected by howwinds distribute the ash. The last time the same volcano erupted, the action went on from 1821 to 1823.