Fredi, of Leeds, arrived home safely following an arduous journey.

“We were about to take off to Prague when my mum called to say my flight would be cancelled. She explained what had happened with the volcano, but when we took off I thought everything must be okay.

“When we arrived in Prague we heard about the shut down, but still thought it would not last long.

“It was not until Sunday when it was time to come home I realised how serious things were because our flight was cancelled.

“A train was really expensive, but our hotel reception found there was a coach leaving for London the next day that would take about 20 hours for around £50."

Fredi duly took a journey through Germany, Belgium, Holland, France and finally to London.

Fellow Leeds student Danni Saffer never envisaged a 21st birthday trip to Texas and New York would end in Toronto via Philadelphia.

But what started as a two-week trip will have doubled when she finally flies back to Heathrow on Wednesday.

“I was due to fly home the day the volcano erupted and to begin with thought, great a weekend in New York, but soon realised that this could become a real problem.

“Luckily I had accommodation to begin with, but know of other students in New York who have had to sleep rough at JFK and Newark airports.

“When my rescheduled flight on Monday was cancelled, I was really upset because I was due back at university, but they have been really understanding as I’m not the only person in that predicament.”

As for Claire and Harry Brown, of Leeds, they were caught up in the mayhem during a whistle stop trip to Paris.

“We were due to fly by Jet2 to Leeds on Friday so because Eurostar was a non-starter for us we had to take a 25-hour trip that started with a train from Paris to Lille.

“After a change we arrived in Bruge before getting a ferry to Hull.

“It was a bit stressful, but there have been plenty of people who endured a worse trip.”