Sunday, 18 April 2010

Ash spreads, travel chaos gets worse....!
Volcanic cloud expands across Europe,......
disrupting more flights on both sides of Atlantic:


An airline worker secures protective plastic wrap over an engine of a grounded plane at Belfast City Airport in Northern Ireland Friday.


A common sight around all Europian airports.
Pic: Peter Muhly, Getty Images, Reuters

The huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano continued to spread out across Europe on Friday causing yet more air travel chaos and costing airlines hundreds of millions of dollars.

The plume floating through the upper atmosphere, where it could damage jet engines and airframes, threw travel plans into disarray on both sides of the Atlantic.

Severe disruption of European air traffic was expected to continue well into today, with aviation authorities in France and Britain moving their target for reopening airspace from this morning to this afternoon at the earliest. Meanwhile, the slowly drifting cloud pushed into other countries, with Switzerland, Hungary and Romania announcing closure or partial closure of their airspace overnight.

However, authorities expected some flights from Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland, where the ash cloud was clearing, would begin operating this morning.

“The winds have become, at upper levels, more westerly and that is steering [the ash] more into Scandinavia, taking it away from Scotland and Northern Ireland,” said Mark Seltzer, a forecaster at Britain’s Met Office.

“I am furious and frustrated,” said Sara Bicoccih, stranded at Frankfurt airport on her way home to Italy from Miami.

“In terms of closure of airspace, this is worse than after 9/11. “a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority, Britain’s aviation regulator, said. “The disruption is probably larger than anything we’ve probably seen.”

U.S. airspace was closed for three days after the terrorist attacks and airlines were forced to halt all transatlantic services.

Disruption from the volcanic ash eruption in Iceland is costing airlines more than $200 million a day, air industry group the International Air Transport Association said.

But unless the cloud disrupts flights for weeks, threatening factories’ supply chains, economists do not think it will significantly slow Europe’s shaky recovery from recession or affect second-quarter gross domestic product figures, said IHS Global Insight chief UK and European economist Howard Archer said.

Volcanologists say the ash could cause problems to air traffic for up to six months if the eruption continues.David Castelveter, a spokesman with the Air Transport Association of America trade group, said U.S. airlines had cancelled at least 170 flights to and from Europe Friday. Delta alone has already cancelled 35 flights to Europe scheduled for today, spokesman Anthony Black said.

Joe Sultana, head of network operations at European air control agency Eurocontrol, said the situation was unprecedented.

Eurocontrol said it was up to each country when flights were resumed, based on whether there was clear air, which depended on wind direction.

The volcano began erupting on Wednesday, hurling a plume of ash six to 11 kilometres into the atmosphere.

Officials said it was still spewing magma and although the eruption could abate in the coming days, ash would continue drifting into the skies of Europe.

European aviation control officials said some 12,000 to 13,000 flights were likely to operate in European airspace on Friday — mostly in the south - compared with about 29,500 normally.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, returning from a trip to the United States, diverted to Portugal and was expected to spend the night in Lisbon.

The air problems have proved a boon for other transport firms. All 58 Eurostar trains between Britain and Europe were operating full, carrying some 46,500 passengers, and a spokeswoman said they would consider adding more services.

- Courtesy: The Vancouver Sun