EUROPE:AVIATION REGULATORS expect almost all scheduled flights to operate in European airspace today as an easing of volcanic ash restrictions kicks in. However, a huge backlog of flights is likely to cause further disruption.
Amid fears that it could take days or weeks to return to normality, airlines took to the skies all over Europe yesterday after a shut-down that grounded flights over half the Continent for the best part of a week.
Although the resumption of services means hundreds of thousands of stranded passengers can make their way home, many face more delays as airlines cope with exceptional demand.
“To get back to normal levels of operation from an industry point of view will take weeks,” said British Airways chief Willie Walsh.
The resumption of flights follows the adoption by EU transport ministers of a new safety system designed to determine precisely where the risks are located from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption.
“The entire European airspace – with the exception of small parts of northern Scotland and mid-Sweden – is entirely clear of all restrictions,” said Brian Flynn, a senior official at aviation body Eurocontrol. With many aircraft still returning to base from foreign destinations, he said normal departure schedules are likely to be subjected to congestion in airports.
Eurocontrol expects some 22,500 flights to have operated yesterday, representing about 80 per cent of the 28,000 that would normally be scheduled.
The reopening of airspace offered relief to European and global air carriers, although their main lobby group doubled its estimate of the losses incurred during the height of the crisis and said governments should now provide compensation.
“It is an extraordinary situation, exaggerated with a poor decision-making process by national governments. The airlines could not do business normally. Governments should help carriers recover the cost of this disruption,” said Giovanni Bisignani, head of the International Air Transport Association.
Mr Bisignani said airlines lost more than $1.7 billion (€1.27 billion) in revenues in the first six days of the crisis, adding that the daily loss was €400 million when disruptions were greatest on April 17th to 19th. “Airspace was being closed based on theoretical models, not on facts. Test flights by our members showed that the models were wrong.”