Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines today cancelled their flights to the UK and other parts of Europe. The flights have been cancelled in the wake of huge clouds of volcanic ash emanating from Iceland.However, Air India and Jet would, operate their flights to the US and Canada by taking a diversion through a polar route i.e across the uninhabited polar ice cap region. Some airlines have started talks with various foreign missions in India to take care of the stranded passengers from those countries. Meanwhile in Europe, officials hope to significantly increase flights at the start of new working week today. European Union ministers will hold talks as pressure builds for a solution to the 5-day-old air travel crisis. Spain's European Union affairs minister Diego Lopez Garrido told reporters after a meeting at European aviation control agency that from just over a fifth of flights taking to the air yesterday ,the figure could rise to up to a half today. The Dutch airline KLM, which has flown several test flights, said most European airspace was safe despite the plume of ash, and dispatched two commercial freight flights to Asia today.Italy and Austria said they would reopen affected airports today Iceland said tremors from the volcano had grown more intense but that the column of ash rising from it had eased back to 4-5 km from 11 km. EU transport ministers will discuss the crisis in a video conference today that Spain has called in its capacity as the 27-nation bloc's president. The closure of most of Europe's airspace because of a huge cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano has cost the airline industry hundreds of millions of dollars. Millions of passengers have been stranded, and importers and exporters have been hit.