Last year, ash clouds from another Icelandic volcano led to the closure of a huge swathe of airspace across Europe and chaos at airports around the world.

But the flight to Shanghai alone would have taken Mouazzen about 11 hours, and besides, most European airports were shut down at the time because of the volcanic ash cloud.

At the airport, a stream of cargo planes arrived, carrying international rescue teams and supplies from the United States, Brazil, Iceland and other countries.