Five hundred scheduled flights were expected to be canceled Tuesday due to clouds of volcanic ash drifting toward the Continent, Europe's air-traffic management agency said, amid fears that the disruption could spread.
Five hundred scheduled flights were expected to be canceled Tuesday due
to clouds of volcanic ash drifting toward the Continent,
Europe
's
air-traffic management agency said, amid fears that the disruption could
spread.
Weather forecasters at the
Volcanic
Ash
Advisory
Center
in
London
on
Tuesday repeated warnings that there was a risk that some ash clouds may reach
parts of northern
Europe
in the next 48 hours.
Iceland
and
Scotland
already are affected.
Dublin, Ireland-based Ryanair Holdings PLC (RYA.DB), a stern critic of the
handling of last year's ash cloud crisis, challenged the restrictions, calling
on air-traffic controllers to reopen airspace over
Scotland
after
it operated a one-hour verification flight up to 41,000 feet in Scottish
airspace.
"There was no visible volcanic ash cloud or any other presence of volcanic
ash and the post-flight inspection revealed no evidence of volcanic ash on the
airframe, wings or engines," it said in a statement.
"The absence of any volcanic ash in the atmosphere supports Ryanair's
stated view that there is no safety threat to aircraft in this mythical 'red
zone,' which is another misguided invention by the U.K. Met Office and the
[Civil Aviation Authority]," it added. The Met Office is one of nine
Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers world-wide and the CAA is the
U.K.
's
specialist aviation regulator.
A spokesman for the CAA rejected Ryanair's remarks. "Their claim that they
flew through high-density ash isn't accurate," he said. The route of the
Ryanair flight had been retraced on radar, showing that it didn't enter zones
with higher concentrations of ash, he added.
Airlines affected by the ash cloud will be keen to resume operations as quickly
as it is safe to do so.
Carriers last year lost millions of euros in revenue when clouds of volcanic
ash blanketed much of the Continent, forcing the closure of most of
Europe
's
airspace. While they were unable to fly, they forked out millions of euros more
to accommodate stranded passengers unable to complete their journeys.
Ratings agency Fitch Ratings said it expected the impact on the finances of the
European airlines to be more muted than in 2010 largely because the industry
was in better shape.
"The impact of lost revenue per day to the whole industry [estimated last
year by the International Air Transport Association] is around EUR150 million
in the worst case scenario--that is, assuming the similar level of airspace
closure to that of 2010," said Sabrina Ran, associate director in Fitch's
corporates team.
"However, the impact is likely to be limited as the agency expects better
coordination between European air-traffic control authorities and the
commercial airlines would occur this time round to keep any travel disruption
to a minimum."
A spokeswoman for Eurocontrol, a
Brussels
,
Belgium-based intergovernmental organization, said that 500 scheduled flights
were expected to be cancelled Tuesday for safety reasons. Typically, there were
29,000 flights daily in
Europe
, she
added.
Iceland
's
Grimsvotn volcano erupted late Saturday, sending ash plumes 17 kilometers into
the sky and sparking worries of a repeat of events last year, when the eruption
of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in April spewed into the atmosphere clouds of
ash that drifted over much of
Europe
. Tens
of thousands of flights were canceled and the travel plans of millions were
disrupted.
A part of Danish airspace was closed from early Tuesday, said Danish airspace
surveillance unit Naviair. "At the moment only a small offshore area over
the
North Sea
is affected by the airspace closure, and only up
to a height of six kilometers," Naviair spokeswoman Camilla Hegnsborg told
Dow Jones Newswires.
"The airlines can merely fly above the affected area, so for the time
being there are no consequences to passenger traffic from the airspace
closure," Hegnsborg said. Naviair didn't rule out wider restrictions later
in the day as the ash cloud drifted further into Scandinavian airspace.
Scotland
's
main international airports in Glasgow and Edinburgh said they anticipated
disruption Tuesday, and cancellations extended as far south as
Newcastle
in
northern
England
.
British Airways and easyJet PLC (ESYJY, EZJ.LN) said services to Scottish
airports including
Glasgow
,
Edinburgh
and
Aberdeen
remained canceled until later Tuesday. Transatlantic traffic continued, but
journeys were subject to delays of up to half an hour as flights were re-routed
to avoid affected areas, said a spokesman for British Airways, which is part of
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG.LN).
Aer Lingus Group PLC (EIL1.DB) said it had consulted its engine manufacturers
and made a decision not to fly in Scottish airspace based on meteorological
conditions and the forecast concentration levels of ash dust.
Oil and gas companies like BP PLC (BP), Norway's Statoil ASA (STL.OS, STO) and
ConocoPhillips (COP), which use helicopters to ferry workers to and from
offshore facilities, said some flights had been halted, but production was
unaffected. Bristow Helicopters, which operates flights to
U.K.
offshore oil and gas platforms in the
North Sea
, said
up to 20 of its flights had been canceled Tuesday morning, affecting
approximately 350 oil workers. Some flights were expected to depart Tuesday
afternoon if weather conditions improved.
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