THERE was fresh misery for stranded Britons last night as travel chiefs warned many will still be stuck next week – despite flights returning to normal after Europe’s skies reopened.

But RAF Typhoon Eurofighters took to the skies again yesterday after tests showed volcanic ash found in engines caused no damage.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) received further assurances on British air safety from military chiefs as the £69m jets were given the green light to take off again after being temporarily grounded.

The only remaining disruption to civilian flights yesterday was in parts of northern Scotland, Orkney and Shetland where the lingering ash cloud affected services out of Kirkwall, Stornoway, Wick and Inverness airports.

Travel organisation Abta said it aimed to have repatriated more than 100,000 British passengers by the end of this weekend.

Mark Tanzer, Abta chief executive, said: “While most flights are back to normal, and most stranded British passengers will be back by the end of this weekend, there is still quite a high level of disruption in some destinations.

“In some areas of the world there is a significant lack of air capacity to enable British people to be returned quickly.”

The RAF’s discovery of ash in engines during post-flight inspections on Wednesday led to the entire fleet at RAF Coningsby being checked on Thursday, just days after UK skies reopened following the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud which halted UK flights for almost a week.

Squadron Leader Al Green said he had been given clearance to fly. He said: “There was no damage found to any of the jets, just a bit of dust on one jet and in the engine air intakes.”

British Airways was running a full programme of flights from Heathrow, Gatwick and London City airports. It was also flying an extra service to bring tourists home from the Caribbean and Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt.

A BA spokesman said: “We hope to add more repatriation flights in the days ahead.”

Ryanair had full services operating.