THE no-fly-zone over Merseyside has so far cost the region’s economy £18m, business leaders warned last night.

And more than 32,000 passengers have been unable to make it into Liverpool John Lennon Airport (JLA) over the past five days because of the ban caused by volcanic dust.

Liverpool Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jack Stopforth said local companies claimed scores of business travellers had been affected by the chaos. But last night, even though some air space was due to re-open later today, the situation became unclear again, with some air passengers braced for further delays after warnings of a “new ash cloud” spreading towards the UK.

Air traffic control company Nats said the “situation was worsening” in some areas. But it said Scottish airports should be available from 7am today and other airspace over England from 1pm, although not including the main London airports.

UK air traffic controllers hoped some areas of British airspace would re-open in a series of phases today. It means tens of thousands of passengers stranded overseas could be able to start returning home. Planes have been grounded since Thursday when dust from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano was blown over the UK.

The dust contains tiny slivers of rock that safety experts feared could choke aeroplanes’ jet engines. And over the past five days it has cost Liverpool City Region £3.6m per day, according to analysis by the city’s Chamber of Commerce. JLA owner Peel Airports also said it has lost £150,000 a day across all three of its locations – including City Airport Manchester and Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield – with the Liverpool venue bearing the brunt of the losses. The airport should have seen between 60 and 70 inbound flights arriving each day, carrying an average of 100 passengers each.

Mr Stopforth said: “JLA’s link to Amsterdam Schipol airport is the city’s main lifeline for international business travel. Companies within our membership are telling us scores of travellers have been affected by the disruption: this includes both staff on holiday and personnel travelling for commercial reasons. The problems extend to expense accounts as credit card limits are reached; the high demand for hotel accommodation has also led to higher prices for rooms.”

Although the air ban is expected to be lifted, JLA warned passengers to contact their airline to see if their flight will still go ahead. Airport spokesman Robin Tudor said no morning flights had been schedule. EasyJet confirmed it would not be flying before 1pm today while Ryanair said it did not expect to return to the skies until lunchtime tomorrow. Mr Tudor said: “While we may be OK for departures from here, flights to, say, Amsterdam could still be hit. It’s going to be a period of time until things get back to normality again.”