Some European flights resume but ash still issue
Source: Agencies |
April 21, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
MANY European flights took to the skies yesterday for the first time in days but the travel chaos is far from over.
London's airports remained shut, a massive flight backlog was growing and scientists feared that history could repeat itself with another volcanic eruption in Iceland.
Airspace in Germany also remained officially closed yesterday but a limited number of flights were allowed in at low altitude.
It was the first day since last Wednesday's eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano - dormant for nearly 200 years - that travelers got a glimmer of hope.
Cheers and applause erupted as flights took off from Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport, Amsterdam and elsewhere.
"Everyone was screaming in the airplane from happiness," said Savvas Toumarides of Cyprus, who arrived in New York after getting stuck in Amsterdam for five days and missing his sister's wedding.
"We were in the hotel having breakfast, and we heard an aircraft take off. Everybody got up and applauded," said Bob Basso, 81, of San Diego, who has been staying near Charles de Gaulle since his flight last Friday was canceled.
The Eurocontrol air traffic agency in Brussels said it expected 53 percent of the 27,500 flights over Europe to go ahead yesterday, a marked improvement over the past few days. The agency predicted close to normal takeoffs by Friday.
"The situation today is much improved," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations at the agency.
But with more than 95,000 flights canceled in the past week alone, airlines faced the enormous task of working through the backlog to get passengers where they want to go - a challenge that could take days or even weeks.
"I'm supposed to be home, my children are supposed to be in school," said Belgian Marie-Laurence Gregoire, 41, who was traveling in Japan with her husband and three children. They said the best that British Airways could do was put them on a flight to Rome.
Although seismic activity at the volcano has increased, the ash plume appeared to be shrinking. Still, scientists were worried that the first blow could trigger an even larger eruption at the nearby Katla volcano, which sits on the massive Myrdalsjokull icecap and has erupted every 80 or so years. Its last major eruption was in 1918.
An international pilots group warned of continued danger because of the ash, which drifted over the North Sea and was being pushed back over Britain yesterday by swirling northerly winds.
A Eurocontrol volcanic ash map yesterday listed the air space between Iceland and Britain as a no-fly zone, along with much of the Baltic Sea and surrounding area. The ash cloud also spread westward from Iceland, toward Greenland and Canada's eastern coastline.
Still, planes were being allowed to fly above 7,000 meters in the United Kingdom.
Some flights took off from Asia to southern Europe and planes ferried people to Europe from Cairo, where 17,000 people were stranded.
Airports in central Europe reopened and most of southern Europe remained clear, with Spain volunteering to be an emergency hub.
London's airports remained shut, a massive flight backlog was growing and scientists feared that history could repeat itself with another volcanic eruption in Iceland.
Airspace in Germany also remained officially closed yesterday but a limited number of flights were allowed in at low altitude.
It was the first day since last Wednesday's eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano - dormant for nearly 200 years - that travelers got a glimmer of hope.
Cheers and applause erupted as flights took off from Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport, Amsterdam and elsewhere.
"Everyone was screaming in the airplane from happiness," said Savvas Toumarides of Cyprus, who arrived in New York after getting stuck in Amsterdam for five days and missing his sister's wedding.
"We were in the hotel having breakfast, and we heard an aircraft take off. Everybody got up and applauded," said Bob Basso, 81, of San Diego, who has been staying near Charles de Gaulle since his flight last Friday was canceled.
The Eurocontrol air traffic agency in Brussels said it expected 53 percent of the 27,500 flights over Europe to go ahead yesterday, a marked improvement over the past few days. The agency predicted close to normal takeoffs by Friday.
"The situation today is much improved," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations at the agency.
But with more than 95,000 flights canceled in the past week alone, airlines faced the enormous task of working through the backlog to get passengers where they want to go - a challenge that could take days or even weeks.
"I'm supposed to be home, my children are supposed to be in school," said Belgian Marie-Laurence Gregoire, 41, who was traveling in Japan with her husband and three children. They said the best that British Airways could do was put them on a flight to Rome.
Although seismic activity at the volcano has increased, the ash plume appeared to be shrinking. Still, scientists were worried that the first blow could trigger an even larger eruption at the nearby Katla volcano, which sits on the massive Myrdalsjokull icecap and has erupted every 80 or so years. Its last major eruption was in 1918.
An international pilots group warned of continued danger because of the ash, which drifted over the North Sea and was being pushed back over Britain yesterday by swirling northerly winds.
A Eurocontrol volcanic ash map yesterday listed the air space between Iceland and Britain as a no-fly zone, along with much of the Baltic Sea and surrounding area. The ash cloud also spread westward from Iceland, toward Greenland and Canada's eastern coastline.
Still, planes were being allowed to fly above 7,000 meters in the United Kingdom.
Some flights took off from Asia to southern Europe and planes ferried people to Europe from Cairo, where 17,000 people were stranded.
Airports in central Europe reopened and most of southern Europe remained clear, with Spain volunteering to be an emergency hub.
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