Poland May Delay Funeral If Volcano Keeps Obama Away

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Poland may delay the funeral of the late President Lech Kaczynski if the cloud of volcanic ash disrupting air travel across Europe prevents world leaders such as U.S. President Barack Obama from attending.

Delaying the April 18 ceremony in the southern Polish city of Krakow is “a very serious possibility,” Jacek Sasin, a minister in the presidential administration, said in an interview on the Web site of RMF FM radio. A delay would be “the absolute last resort” and isn’t being considered at the moment, he said at a later press conference. A decision will probably be made this afternoon, he said.

All Polish airports except Krakow and Rzeszow are closed, and the disruption may extend further, Karina Lisowska, a spokeswoman for Poland’s Civil Aviation Office, said by phone today. Thousands of European flights were grounded yesterday after Iceland’s 5,500-foot, ice-covered Eyjafjöll volcano erupted and winds carried dust across a swath of the continent.

Kaczynski and officials, including central bank Governor Slawomir Skrzypek and the top four commanders of Poland’s armed forces, were among 96 people killed in a plane crash outside Smolensk, Russia on April 10.

Burial Among Kings

Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, are to be buried in Krakow’s Wawel castle, the resting place of Poland’s medieval kings. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are also scheduled to attend.

The main airport in Prague, in the neighboring Czech Republic, may close at 11 a.m. today, said Richard Klima, a spokesman for the country’s Air Traffic Control office.

British airspace will be closed until at least 1 a.m. tomorrow and 10 airports are shuttered in Germany, including Frankfurt, on concern that the plume could damage engines or parts such as speed sensors.

European airlines may cancel half of all flights today, or as many as 15,000 connections, said Brian Flynn, the head of operations at Eurocontrol. That compares with about 8,000 cancellations yesterday, he said in a Bloomberg television interview today.

The Polish closure originally affected airports in Bydgoszcz, Gdansk, Poznan and Szczecin and was scheduled to last until at least 4 p.m., Grzegorz Hlebowicz, a spokesman for the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency, said by phone earlier today. Other cities affected by the expanded flight-prohibition area include the capital, Warsaw.