A small plane flies past a smoke from the eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano

The first flight cancellations have hit English airports as a volcanic ash cloud spread over Britain for the second time in 13 months.

Dutch airline KLM and British carrier Eastern Airways announced that scheduled flights from Newcastle and Durham Tees Valley airports would remain grounded this morning after the eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland.

It came as several major operators flying in and out of Scotland cancelled flights on Tuesday morning with the ash cloud already drifting across airspace.

British Airways announced it had cancelled all flights to and from Scotland until 2:00 p.m. at the earliest, while easyJet, Aer Lingus, Flybe and Loganair also put scheduled arrivals and departures on hold.

Ryanair was ordered by Irish authorities to cancel all flights to and from Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow Prestwick.

Holidaymakers across Britain were advised to check with their airlines before travelling, with the cloud expected to cover much of Britain by lunch time on Tuesday, according to Met Office predictions.

The disruption came just over a year after the eruption of the Eyjafyoll volcano sent British airspace into meltdown, causing the worst flight restrictions in living memory.

Some airports were closed for days due to fears that tiny particles of rock and sand in the cloud could be sucked into aircraft engines and jam them.

The concern of a repeat situation was such that Barack Obama cut short a visit to Ireland to fly to England on Monday night, rather than waiting until Tuesday morning as had been planned.

Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, said Britons "have got to learn" to live with chaos caused by volcanic activity in Iceland.

He told BBC2's Newsnight on Monday night: "My understanding is that we have gone through an unusually quiet period for volcanic eruptions in Iceland over the last 20-odd years and we are moving into a period when there is likely to be significantly more volcanic activity.

"So this is clearly something we have got to learn to plan around. We have got to learn to live with it."

But he insisted there were now "much more robust systems" to "minimise the disruptive effect".

According to the CAA, all British aircraft can fly in medium density ash, but Met Office charts show that the levels are higher than this below 35,000 feet, meaning planes could have to navigate routes around the plume.

Ryanair said it objected to advice from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) not to operate flights to and from Glasgow, Prestwick, Edinburgh or Aberdeen until at least 1:00 p.m.

In a statement on its website, the airline said: "Ryanair strongly object to this decision and believe that there is no basis for these flight cancellations and will be meeting with the IAA on Tuesday morning to have this restriction on Ryanair flights removed as a matter of urgency.

"Ryanair believe that there is no safety risk to aircraft on fights operating to and from Scotland and together with other airlines will be complaining to the Transport Minister and regulatory authorities about these latest and unnecessary cancellations."

Met Office forecaster Charles Powell predicted the plume would cover large swathes of Britain by lunchtime.

He said: "This area of ash will start to make its presence felt across parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland and by midday I think much of the UK will be covered."

But the latest eruption is ecpexted to be less serious than that of 13 months ago, because the ash is of a different consistency and aviation rules have since been changed giving airlines more say in whether or not it is safe to fly.