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Millions of people face worsening travel chaos as a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland moves further south and east, forcing European countries to extend flight bans.

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Britain has extended a ban on most flights in its airspace until at least 7pm on Sunday (0400 AEST Monday) due to the volcanic ash cloud, air authorities announced.

"The volcanic ash cloud from Iceland shows continued and extensive cover of the UK," the National Air Traffic Services said in a statement on Sunday.

"Based on the latest information from the Met Office, NATS advises that the restrictions currently in place across UK controlled airspace will remain in place until at least 1900 (UK time) today."

NATS said it would continue to provide information from the Met Office national weather service and would provide a further update about 9am on Sunday (1800 AEST).

The Met Office said it had detected evidence of ash dust over Britain and had reports of it reaching the ground.

"We continue to look for weather windows that will allow air space restrictions to be lifted," it said.

A research flight on Friday found "three distinct layers of ash, from fine particles at low levels to large particles around 8,000 feet (2,400 metres)," it said.

"All these observations are consistent with our forecast plumes for where the ash cloud would spread and how it would mix through the atmosphere."

France has decided to shut the three airports in the Paris area and others in the north of the country until 8am (1600 AEST) on Monday due to the ash cloud that has caused the biggest airspace shutdown since World War II.

German airspace will remain closed until 8pm on Sunday (0400 AEST Monday) because of the volcanic dust cloud from Iceland, a spokeswoman for the national air safety agency DFS announced.

Europe's biggest airline Lufthansa announced earlier that it was cancelling all its flights until the same time.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be unable to attend the funeral later on Sunday of president Lech Kacynski in Poland because of the travel turmoil, a government spokesman said late on Saturday.

Merkel had been due back in Berlin on Friday afternoon from a trip to the United States, but was diverted to Lisbon because German airspace was closed.

She spent the night to Saturday in the Portuguese capital and then flew to Rome from where she was due to travel to Germany by car.

Italy also says it won't allow any flights until 0600 GMT (1600 AEST) on Monday, Ireland has shut its airspace until 1200 GMT (2200 AEST) on Sunday and Britain and Germany have lengthened bans on most flights in their airspace until 0600 GMT (1600 AEST) on Sunday.

Winds blowing the massive cloud eastward from Iceland to Russia will continue in the same direction for at least two days and could go on until the middle of the week, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said on Saturday.

"The ash will continue to be directed towards Britain and Scandinavia," Teitur Arason, a meteorologist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, told AFP.
"That's the general situation for the coming days... more or less for the next two days or maybe the next four or five days," he said.

The volcanic ash cloud is heading towards Greece as it moves further south as well as east into Russia, Britain's meteorological group the Met Office said on Saturday.
Other European nations have also moved to extend their flight bans, including Austria to 0000 GMT (1000 AEST) on Sunday and Belgium to 1200 GMT (2200 AEST) on Sunday.

Poland says it's shutting its airspace "until further notice".