Europe reopens: Airlines count costs
Source: Agencies |
April 22, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AIRLINES lost at least US$1.7 billion during the volcanic ash crisis, the industry said yesterday as air controllers lifted all restrictions on German air space, paving the way for more flights into some of Europe's busiest airports.
Giovanni Bisignani, head of the International Air Transport Association, called the economic fallout from the six-day travel freeze "devastating."
He urged European governments to examine ways to compensate airlines for lost revenue, as the United States did following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
He said it would take three years for the industry to recover from the week of lost flying time that stranded millions around the globe.
Eurocontrol, the air traffic control agency in Brussels, said 21,000 of the continent's 28,000 scheduled flights would go ahead today.
Still, experts predicted it could take days - even more than a week - to clear a backlog of passengers from more than 100,000 canceled flights.
"The crisis is petering out," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations.
"The potential area where there could be any possible risk of some particles of ash cloud has dissipated throughout most of Europe."
But some restrictions remained in force over parts of Britain, Ireland and France.
Spain has developed into a key emergency travel hub, arranging for hundreds of special flights to move 40,000-plus stranded people. Its airports and airspace have mostly remained open throughout the crisis.
German aviation agency Deutsche Flugsicherung said the decision to reopen the country's air space was made based on weather data, not economics.
It said the concentration of volcano ash in the sky "considerably decreased and will continue to dwindle because of the weather conditions."
"Bremen, Hamburg, Hanover, Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich are open again," said Axel Raab, a spokesman for German air traffic control.
"We cannot say what it will look like in the next few days. If the volcano becomes active again, new closures might happen."
"This is a decision based on meteorological data."
A test flight carried out by the German Aerospace Center found differing levels of volcanic ash over Germany.
The highest concentration of ash was found over eastern Germany, but the report said its density was comparable to a plume of dust above the Sahara. The air space above the northern city of Hamburg was entirely free from ash.
The center reported no damage to the jet that flew the test flight.
A French weather service plane took samples of the air and found no volcanic ash problems either, according to French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau.
Passengers, many stranded for days, welcomed the airport reopenings.
"It's good for us at least," said Mats Tillander, a Swede at Frankfurt International Airport, who spent four days trapped in Texas.
"For an industry that lost US$9.4 billion last year and was forecast to lose a further US$2.8 billion in 2010, this crisis is devastating," Bisignani said.
In Iceland, there was no sign that the eruptions at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano were ending soon, according to Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Reykjavik.
"We cannot predict when it will end," he said yesterday.
"But ash production is going down and is really insignificant at the moment."
At Heathrow's Terminal 3 outside of London, no one was allowed inside the departures level until they had been checked by their airline to ensure they had a valid ticket.
Departure boards still showed about half the flights as canceled.
Despite the uncertainty, passengers were optimistic that they would soon be moving. Juanjo Dominguez, a 25-year-old Web designer from London, was at the airport for his afternoon flight to New York.
"I feel good, hopeful," Dominguez said. "I still think that things can happen from now ... I am still keeping my fingers crossed."
At the terminal's arrivals level, there was just a small trickle of passengers arriving from New York and Madrid.
In Spain, the airport in Barcelona took in flights from New York, Orlando, Vancouver, Paris, Nice and Rome. Airports in Barcelona and Madrid also chartered nearly 300 buses to get people to other cities in Europe.
Palma, on Mallorca, handled 50 extra flights.
Bussereau predicted air traffic would be back to normal before the weekend as aviation authorities expanded the corridors where planes are allowed to fly.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG's CEO yesterday welcomed the government's decision to reopen the skies.
There was "absolutely no danger," Wolfgang Mayrhuber said. "We will restart our system as quickly as possible."
Giovanni Bisignani, head of the International Air Transport Association, called the economic fallout from the six-day travel freeze "devastating."
He urged European governments to examine ways to compensate airlines for lost revenue, as the United States did following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
He said it would take three years for the industry to recover from the week of lost flying time that stranded millions around the globe.
Eurocontrol, the air traffic control agency in Brussels, said 21,000 of the continent's 28,000 scheduled flights would go ahead today.
Still, experts predicted it could take days - even more than a week - to clear a backlog of passengers from more than 100,000 canceled flights.
"The crisis is petering out," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations.
"The potential area where there could be any possible risk of some particles of ash cloud has dissipated throughout most of Europe."
But some restrictions remained in force over parts of Britain, Ireland and France.
Spain has developed into a key emergency travel hub, arranging for hundreds of special flights to move 40,000-plus stranded people. Its airports and airspace have mostly remained open throughout the crisis.
German aviation agency Deutsche Flugsicherung said the decision to reopen the country's air space was made based on weather data, not economics.
It said the concentration of volcano ash in the sky "considerably decreased and will continue to dwindle because of the weather conditions."
"Bremen, Hamburg, Hanover, Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich are open again," said Axel Raab, a spokesman for German air traffic control.
"We cannot say what it will look like in the next few days. If the volcano becomes active again, new closures might happen."
"This is a decision based on meteorological data."
A test flight carried out by the German Aerospace Center found differing levels of volcanic ash over Germany.
The highest concentration of ash was found over eastern Germany, but the report said its density was comparable to a plume of dust above the Sahara. The air space above the northern city of Hamburg was entirely free from ash.
The center reported no damage to the jet that flew the test flight.
A French weather service plane took samples of the air and found no volcanic ash problems either, according to French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau.
Passengers, many stranded for days, welcomed the airport reopenings.
"It's good for us at least," said Mats Tillander, a Swede at Frankfurt International Airport, who spent four days trapped in Texas.
"For an industry that lost US$9.4 billion last year and was forecast to lose a further US$2.8 billion in 2010, this crisis is devastating," Bisignani said.
In Iceland, there was no sign that the eruptions at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano were ending soon, according to Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Reykjavik.
"We cannot predict when it will end," he said yesterday.
"But ash production is going down and is really insignificant at the moment."
At Heathrow's Terminal 3 outside of London, no one was allowed inside the departures level until they had been checked by their airline to ensure they had a valid ticket.
Departure boards still showed about half the flights as canceled.
Despite the uncertainty, passengers were optimistic that they would soon be moving. Juanjo Dominguez, a 25-year-old Web designer from London, was at the airport for his afternoon flight to New York.
"I feel good, hopeful," Dominguez said. "I still think that things can happen from now ... I am still keeping my fingers crossed."
At the terminal's arrivals level, there was just a small trickle of passengers arriving from New York and Madrid.
In Spain, the airport in Barcelona took in flights from New York, Orlando, Vancouver, Paris, Nice and Rome. Airports in Barcelona and Madrid also chartered nearly 300 buses to get people to other cities in Europe.
Palma, on Mallorca, handled 50 extra flights.
Bussereau predicted air traffic would be back to normal before the weekend as aviation authorities expanded the corridors where planes are allowed to fly.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG's CEO yesterday welcomed the government's decision to reopen the skies.
There was "absolutely no danger," Wolfgang Mayrhuber said. "We will restart our system as quickly as possible."
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