Peaceful skies

Is the wholesale closing-down of flights over Britain an over-reaction? As I understand it, the ash cloud which is causing the problem is basically to the north and east, so I rather sympathised with a bloke at Birmingham Airport the other day who was due to fly from there to Benidorm (i.e. south) and couldn't understand why that flight had been cancelled. Mind you, I have to say that I was sat out in my back garden yesterday afternoon and it was lovely and quiet and I could hear the birds singing - so every cloud (no pun intended) has a silver lining you see!