Britain Opens Its Airspace as Travel Crisis Begins to Ebb
Yoshikazu Tsuno/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
An airline staff member calling passengers at the check-in counters for Swiss International Air Lines at Narita International Airport near Tokyo on Tuesday.
By ALAN COWELL and NICOLA CLARK
Published: April 20, 2010
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LONDON — After six days of mostly closed skies, Britain abruptly lifted a ban on flights late on Tuesday as thousands of stranded passengers began to make their their way home after Europe's worst peacetime transportation crisis.
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Related
New Ash Cloud Adds to Uncertainty of Air Travel (April 21, 2010)
Bucks Blog: Travel Insurance and the Volcano (April 20, 2010)
A Light at the End of the Runway (April 21, 2010)
Airlines Urge State Aid After Industry Chaos (April 21, 2010)
Previous Airline Brushes with Ash Disaster (April 20, 2010)
Times Topic: Iceland Volcano Eruption of 2010 (Eyjafjallajokull Volcano)
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Until 10 p.m., most of Britain's airports, including London's Heathrow, had remained closed, while continental European air space gradually re-opened Tuesday after the days of restrictions caused by a plume of volcanic ash drifting south and east from an erupting volcano in Iceland.
Britain had seemed the last hold-out, with aviation authorities citing an unexpected new cloud of ash closing on its air space. For much of the evening, news broadcasts in London focused on the chaos for an estimated 150,000 marooned Britons seeking a way home through ports in Spain and along the English Channel coast.
Then, in late evening, the whine of jet engines was heard for the first time in almost a week as transatlantic flights began to land at Heathrow. The Civil Aviation Authority said the "major barrier to resuming flights had been understanding tolerance levels of aircraft to ash," suggesting that authorities had been especially cautious in assessing the threat presented by the ash.
The ash can clog jet engines, forcing planes to stall in mid-flight with potentially catastrophic consequences.
The Transport Secretary, Lord Adonis, said safety had been the "paramount concern" but after talking to airplane manufacturers, airlines and scientific specialists, the authorities had reached a better understanding of "how different concentrations of ash affect aircraft engines."
As a result, he said, aviation authorities had "established a wider area in which it is safe to fly." Lord Adonis said he expected all British airports to reopen and remain open.
The British move came after the broader European crisis began to unwind with the gradual reopening of flights in some of Europe's busiest flight-paths in France and Germany.
By the time British airports started reopening, the chaos had lasted twice as long as the three-day closing of American airspace after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Eurocontrol, the Brussels-based agency that coordinates air-traffic management across the region, said that by the end of the day Tuesday, 95,000 flights will have been canceled as a result of the ash cloud.
Initially, the reopening of airspace under a plan agreed Monday by European ministers was cautious and unpredictable, its piecemeal nature drawing strong criticism from European airlines, which began focusing on their own fate amid signs that getting financial compensation from the government could prove more complicated than getting their planes back in the air.
Some analysts said the muted political response by European Union transport ministers, who decided on Monday to table the questions of state aid until after the ash dissipates and normal travel conditions are restored, suggests that European airlines should not expect the kind of support American airlines got" from Washington following the 9/11 shutdown.
"The comparison between this situation and 9/11 really ends at the visual level of seeing all that smoke," said David J. Bentley, European associate for the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, a research institute based in Sydney.
"This also has not affected the whole of Europe, like 9/11 did for the U.S.," Mr. Bentley said, "so I'm sure that some European countries will want to break ranks over any coordinated response."
The cancellations have cost the United States economy some $650 million, the United States Travel Association reported on Tuesday, as businesses lost out on an estimated $450,000 spent by every flight of international travelers arriving in the United States.
The closings also caused major financial strains for Asian airlines. Andrew Herdman, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said in a statement on Tuesday that flights to and from Europe accounted for about 15 percent of total passenger revenues for the region's main carriers, worth some $40 million a day.
Eurocontrol said it expected around 14,000 flights on Tuesday, half of the 28,000 that are normally scheduled. The agency said that roughly 75 percent of the airspace over Europe was open and that all European airspace was open to air traffic above elevations of 20,000 feet, which would enable intercontinental overflight traffic to resume.
Multimedia
Interactive Feature
Tracking the Cancellations
Related
New Ash Cloud Adds to Uncertainty of Air Travel (April 21, 2010)
Bucks Blog: Travel Insurance and the Volcano (April 20, 2010)
A Light at the End of the Runway (April 21, 2010)
Airlines Urge State Aid After Industry Chaos (April 21, 2010)
Previous Airline Brushes with Ash Disaster (April 20, 2010)
Times Topic: Iceland Volcano Eruption of 2010 (Eyjafjallajokull Volcano)
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Earlier, Lufthansa, the German airline, said it would operate all scheduled intercontinental flights to and from Germany on Tuesday as well as "some" intra-European and domestic flights. The carrier said it expected to be able to add more European services later in the day.
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Air France said it expected to fly a limited number of domestic and European flights from Paris on Tuesday, while all long-haul flights would operate normally.
It also said it expected to operate all long-haul flights on Wednesday and nearly all of its European flights, with the exception of those to and from northern and northeastern Europe, where airspaces remained closed. Roughly half of all domestic flights would proceed as scheduled, Air France said.
In disparate ways, European governments sought to ease the inconvenience — and mounting cost — for passengers stranded in far-flung destinations.
The French Consulate in Hong Kong urged French residents to open up their private homes to stranded compatriots. With an estimated 150,000 citizens stranded abroad, Britain's Royal Navy sent a warship to Santander on the north coast of Spain to pick up troops returning from Afghanistan along with a handful of civilians, and planned to deploy two more vessels in the English Channel.
Several airports in Southern Europe — notably Madrid, Athens and Rome — had served as impromptu hubs for the rest of the Continent on Tuesday. The Italian civil aviation authority said that all of its airspace was now open, news agencies reported. Northern Italian airports had been closed since Friday.
The Australian carrier Qantas said Tuesday that it was canceling all its flights between Asia and Europe through Thursday, while Japan Airlines said it would start operating its regular round-trip flights between Tokyo and Rome, plus an extra flight to help stranded Europeans return home.
Multimedia
Interactive Feature
Tracking the Cancellations
Related
New Ash Cloud Adds to Uncertainty of Air Travel (April 21, 2010)
Bucks Blog: Travel Insurance and the Volcano (April 20, 2010)
A Light at the End of the Runway (April 21, 2010)
Airlines Urge State Aid After Industry Chaos (April 21, 2010)
Previous Airline Brushes with Ash Disaster (April 20, 2010)
Times Topic: Iceland Volcano Eruption of 2010 (Eyjafjallajokull Volcano)
Readers' Comments
Share your thoughts.
Post a Comment »
Read All Comments (153) »
Earlier, Lufthansa, the German airline, said it would operate all scheduled intercontinental flights to and from Germany on Tuesday as well as "some" intra-European and domestic flights. The carrier said it expected to be able to add more European services later in the day.
.
Air France said it expected to fly a limited number of domestic and European flights from Paris on Tuesday, while all long-haul flights would operate normally.
It also said it expected to operate all long-haul flights on Wednesday and nearly all of its European flights, with the exception of those to and from northern and northeastern Europe, where airspaces remained closed. Roughly half of all domestic flights would proceed as scheduled, Air France said.
In disparate ways, European governments sought to ease the inconvenience — and mounting cost — for passengers stranded in far-flung destinations.
The French Consulate in Hong Kong urged French residents to open up their private homes to stranded compatriots. With an estimated 150,000 citizens stranded abroad, Britain's Royal Navy sent a warship to Santander on the north coast of Spain to pick up troops returning from Afghanistan along with a handful of civilians, and planned to deploy two more vessels in the English Channel.
Several airports in Southern Europe — notably Madrid, Athens and Rome — had served as impromptu hubs for the rest of the Continent on Tuesday. The Italian civil aviation authority said that all of its airspace was now open, news agencies reported. Northern Italian airports had been closed since Friday.
The Australian carrier Qantas said Tuesday that it was canceling all its flights between Asia and Europe through Thursday, while Japan Airlines said it would start operating its regular round-trip flights between Tokyo and Rome, plus an extra flight to help stranded Europeans return home.
Did Global Warming Cause Iceland Volcano to Erupt?
Tuesday April 20, 2010
You can blame climate change for a lot, but not for spoiling your European vacation.
Global warming probably did not cause the volcanic eruption beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier, which has disrupted global aviation and grounded travelers on multiple continents over the past few days--but many scientists believe global warming will trigger future volcanic eruptions in Iceland and throughout the polar regions.
Ice is heavy and exerts enormous pressure on whatever lies beneath it. Under glaciers and other thick ice formations, the pressure is often enough to limit geologic movement, or even to restrict the formation of magma by leaving too little room for superheated rock to expand and turn to liquid. When glacial ice melts, the pressure underneath is reduced, allowing the surface of the Earth to push free of its constraints, a release of energy that sometimes causes earthquakes, tsunamis or volcanic eruptions.
The Icelandic volcano that is currently spewing ash into the atmosphere is located under a small and lightweight ice cap, as ice caps go, so scientists are pretty certain than melting ice did not trigger the eruption.
Size also matters in the question of whether ash from the volcano in Iceland will be enough to slow global warming by creating a kind of reflector shield in the stratosphere to block some of the sun's rays and prevent them from reaching the Earth's surface. Again, the relatively small size of the volcano and the eruption leads scientists to believe that the world will go on warming with no cooling effect from Iceland's geology.
The poet Robert Frost wrote, "Some say the world will end in fire/some say in ice," and then went on to offer his own views on the subject. From what scientists are starting to learn about the relationship between climate change, glacial ice and volcanoes, we may get plenty of both before we're through.
Tuesday April 20, 2010
You can blame climate change for a lot, but not for spoiling your European vacation.
Global warming probably did not cause the volcanic eruption beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier, which has disrupted global aviation and grounded travelers on multiple continents over the past few days--but many scientists believe global warming will trigger future volcanic eruptions in Iceland and throughout the polar regions.
Ice is heavy and exerts enormous pressure on whatever lies beneath it. Under glaciers and other thick ice formations, the pressure is often enough to limit geologic movement, or even to restrict the formation of magma by leaving too little room for superheated rock to expand and turn to liquid. When glacial ice melts, the pressure underneath is reduced, allowing the surface of the Earth to push free of its constraints, a release of energy that sometimes causes earthquakes, tsunamis or volcanic eruptions.
The Icelandic volcano that is currently spewing ash into the atmosphere is located under a small and lightweight ice cap, as ice caps go, so scientists are pretty certain than melting ice did not trigger the eruption.
Size also matters in the question of whether ash from the volcano in Iceland will be enough to slow global warming by creating a kind of reflector shield in the stratosphere to block some of the sun's rays and prevent them from reaching the Earth's surface. Again, the relatively small size of the volcano and the eruption leads scientists to believe that the world will go on warming with no cooling effect from Iceland's geology.
The poet Robert Frost wrote, "Some say the world will end in fire/some say in ice," and then went on to offer his own views on the subject. From what scientists are starting to learn about the relationship between climate change, glacial ice and volcanoes, we may get plenty of both before we're through.
Ash cloud halts certain food imports
By Lorraine Heller, 20-Apr-2010
Related topics: Financial & Industry
The grounding of airplanes throughout much of Europe has put the brakes on imports of some fruit and vegetable products, although trade groups and supermarkets are downplaying the impact of the Icelandic volcano on food stocks.
The UK's Freight Transport Association yesterday warned of a "detrimental effect on businesses and consumers", particularly for the import of fresh goods and products with a short shelf life.
"With imports of some fruit and vegetables grounded, certain fresh produce, such as exotic fruits and fresh flowers, are starting to become noticeable by their absence from our supermarket shelves," said Christopher Snelling, FTA's head of Global Supply Chain Policy. The backlog of air freight waiting to come into the UK is creating an "unprecedented logistical challenge", he said.
Low reliance on air freight
But statistics from the country's Fresh Produce Consortium, a trade group for the fresh produce industry, said the percentage of fruit and vegetables imported by air freight remains minimal – only 1.5 percent by volume of all fresh fruit and vegetables entering the country.
"Whilst we won't run out of fresh produce on the shelves, if this continues it will impact exotic products, and it is already having an impact on individual companies that specialise in these particular products," the group told FoodNavigator.com.
Statistics from the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) place total UK imports of fresh produce in 2008 at 5,268,000 tonnes – over 60 per cent of all fresh product consumed in the country. Examples of products most likely to be affected by the grounding of flights include green beans, mango, baby sweetcorn, figs, papaya, coconut and sugar snap peas.
Supermarkets are downplaying the risk of major shortages. Tesco says fewer than 1 per cent of its products are air freighted, while Sainsbury's also says it has a "low" reliance on imported goods, most of which are transported via road or sea. Asda agrees it is "not worried yet" but warns this may become "more of an issue" if the situation continues for over a week.
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Create the best emulsion with phospholipids: ILPS and Ghent University experts improve your skills on vegetable lecithin functions in structured emulsions and liposomes. Focus on nutritional properties of egg and marine phospholipids. Join the course ... Click here
Flight restrictions eased
Airspace in more than 20 European countries has been closed, or partially closed, since Iceland's Eyjafjallajoekull volcano began erupting last Wednesday, launching a massive ash cloud 11km into the atmosphere.
The UK's air navigation services provider, Nats, this morning advised that some restrictions on the airspace below 20,000ft could be lifted, but at the time of publication the majority of flights from the UK remained cancelled.
According to figures from the Freight Transport Association, air freight accounts for only 0.5 per cent of the UK's international goods movements by weight, but 25 per cent by value. However, the majority of this is made up of higher-value goods such as pharmaceuticals and luxury products.
"The overall tonnage (of air-freighted food) is small, and it is mainly high-end specialty products that won't be missed on the shelves," said Alan Braithwaite, chairman of LCP Consulting, a supply chain logistics consultancy.
"But every retailer and supplier will be putting in place their own particular strategy to get products to the shelves, and as alternative logistics are found capacity will get squeezed. It's not an earth-shattering impact on the industry, but it's clearly big for the companies involved," he told FoodNavigator.com.
By Lorraine Heller, 20-Apr-2010
Related topics: Financial & Industry
The grounding of airplanes throughout much of Europe has put the brakes on imports of some fruit and vegetable products, although trade groups and supermarkets are downplaying the impact of the Icelandic volcano on food stocks.
The UK's Freight Transport Association yesterday warned of a "detrimental effect on businesses and consumers", particularly for the import of fresh goods and products with a short shelf life.
"With imports of some fruit and vegetables grounded, certain fresh produce, such as exotic fruits and fresh flowers, are starting to become noticeable by their absence from our supermarket shelves," said Christopher Snelling, FTA's head of Global Supply Chain Policy. The backlog of air freight waiting to come into the UK is creating an "unprecedented logistical challenge", he said.
Low reliance on air freight
But statistics from the country's Fresh Produce Consortium, a trade group for the fresh produce industry, said the percentage of fruit and vegetables imported by air freight remains minimal – only 1.5 percent by volume of all fresh fruit and vegetables entering the country.
"Whilst we won't run out of fresh produce on the shelves, if this continues it will impact exotic products, and it is already having an impact on individual companies that specialise in these particular products," the group told FoodNavigator.com.
Statistics from the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) place total UK imports of fresh produce in 2008 at 5,268,000 tonnes – over 60 per cent of all fresh product consumed in the country. Examples of products most likely to be affected by the grounding of flights include green beans, mango, baby sweetcorn, figs, papaya, coconut and sugar snap peas.
Supermarkets are downplaying the risk of major shortages. Tesco says fewer than 1 per cent of its products are air freighted, while Sainsbury's also says it has a "low" reliance on imported goods, most of which are transported via road or sea. Asda agrees it is "not worried yet" but warns this may become "more of an issue" if the situation continues for over a week.
SPONSORED LINK
LECITHIN SHORT COURSE GHENT 10-11 JUNE 2010
Create the best emulsion with phospholipids: ILPS and Ghent University experts improve your skills on vegetable lecithin functions in structured emulsions and liposomes. Focus on nutritional properties of egg and marine phospholipids. Join the course ... Click here
Flight restrictions eased
Airspace in more than 20 European countries has been closed, or partially closed, since Iceland's Eyjafjallajoekull volcano began erupting last Wednesday, launching a massive ash cloud 11km into the atmosphere.
The UK's air navigation services provider, Nats, this morning advised that some restrictions on the airspace below 20,000ft could be lifted, but at the time of publication the majority of flights from the UK remained cancelled.
According to figures from the Freight Transport Association, air freight accounts for only 0.5 per cent of the UK's international goods movements by weight, but 25 per cent by value. However, the majority of this is made up of higher-value goods such as pharmaceuticals and luxury products.
"The overall tonnage (of air-freighted food) is small, and it is mainly high-end specialty products that won't be missed on the shelves," said Alan Braithwaite, chairman of LCP Consulting, a supply chain logistics consultancy.
"But every retailer and supplier will be putting in place their own particular strategy to get products to the shelves, and as alternative logistics are found capacity will get squeezed. It's not an earth-shattering impact on the industry, but it's clearly big for the companies involved," he told FoodNavigator.com.
European airlines ask for aid as volcano losses pass $1B
Updated 22h 12m ago | Comments 69 | Recommend 3 E-mail | Save | Print |
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Workers for Van de Berg Flowers in Kenya stack boxes of flowers waiting to ship in the storeroom Monday.
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By Charisse Jones and Dan Reed, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — The economic fallout from a volcanic eruption that froze travel across Europe continued to mount Monday, prompting some European airlines to ask for government financial help as losses to their industry surged past $1 billion.
The head of British Airways likened the need for help to the days after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"This is an unprecedented situation that is having a huge impact on customers and airlines alike," Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, said in a statement. "Compensation was paid after the closure of U.S. airspace following the terrorist events of 9/11, and clearly the impact of the current situation is more considerable."
The global airline industry, just beginning to climb back from a decade of financial losses, has lost at least $200 million a day since the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland forced cancellation of more than 80,000 flights in 23 European countries. European airline stock prices fell in the wake of the crisis.
U.S. airlines, which have probably suffered a revenue hit approaching $250 million, have so far not made a similar request for government aid. And only U.S. airlines with international routes have seen their stocks affected.
A threat to European economies
U.S. carriers normally average about $55 million a day in revenue from trans-Atlantic operations, says David Castelveter of the Air Transport Association in Washington.
Only a handful of flights, mostly to and from southern European cities, operated the last five days. However, the massive cancellations occurred during a light travel period between Europe and North America, after spring break in the U.S. and before the peak summer travel season.
Not only airlines, business travelers and tourists have been affected. The travel disruptions threaten to slow the fledgling recovery of Europe's recession-battered economies. And the inability to transport some goods by plane has had a ripple effect.
"Europe's forecasted economic growth of 1.2% for 2010 was already the lowest of the developed world and could dip to 1.1% or lower because of a loss of travel," says John Lonski, chief economist for Moody's Capital Markets.
Roughly 700,000 travelers a day go to Europe, the United Nations' World Tourism Organization estimates.
The extent of the fallout depends on how long the disruption lasts.
"The overall economic impact on the United Kingdom and other European countries of the flight ban should be limited, but this will be of little comfort to those industries that are affected and to the people that are stranded or unable to travel," economists with IHS Global Insight said Monday in assessing the situation. "Obviously, the longer the problem goes on, the greater the potential hit to the economy."
Goods stack up as they wait to ship
Flower growers in Kenya worried their buds destined for Europe could rot before the airways reopened. "There's going to be a lot of people going into restaurants in the next few days wanting to order a piece of Atlantic salmon and it won't be there," says Brandon Fried, head of the Air Forwarders Association in Washington, which represents 330 companies involved in air freight.
"I'm most concerned about the medical shipments — either medicines or biologicals that need to be transported rather quickly," Fried says.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 22h 12m ago | Comments 69 | Recommend 3 E-mail | Save | Print |
Enlarge By Khalil Senosi, AP
Workers for Van de Berg Flowers in Kenya stack boxes of flowers waiting to ship in the storeroom Monday.
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By Charisse Jones and Dan Reed, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — The economic fallout from a volcanic eruption that froze travel across Europe continued to mount Monday, prompting some European airlines to ask for government financial help as losses to their industry surged past $1 billion.
The head of British Airways likened the need for help to the days after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"This is an unprecedented situation that is having a huge impact on customers and airlines alike," Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, said in a statement. "Compensation was paid after the closure of U.S. airspace following the terrorist events of 9/11, and clearly the impact of the current situation is more considerable."
The global airline industry, just beginning to climb back from a decade of financial losses, has lost at least $200 million a day since the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland forced cancellation of more than 80,000 flights in 23 European countries. European airline stock prices fell in the wake of the crisis.
U.S. airlines, which have probably suffered a revenue hit approaching $250 million, have so far not made a similar request for government aid. And only U.S. airlines with international routes have seen their stocks affected.
A threat to European economies
U.S. carriers normally average about $55 million a day in revenue from trans-Atlantic operations, says David Castelveter of the Air Transport Association in Washington.
Only a handful of flights, mostly to and from southern European cities, operated the last five days. However, the massive cancellations occurred during a light travel period between Europe and North America, after spring break in the U.S. and before the peak summer travel season.
Not only airlines, business travelers and tourists have been affected. The travel disruptions threaten to slow the fledgling recovery of Europe's recession-battered economies. And the inability to transport some goods by plane has had a ripple effect.
"Europe's forecasted economic growth of 1.2% for 2010 was already the lowest of the developed world and could dip to 1.1% or lower because of a loss of travel," says John Lonski, chief economist for Moody's Capital Markets.
Roughly 700,000 travelers a day go to Europe, the United Nations' World Tourism Organization estimates.
The extent of the fallout depends on how long the disruption lasts.
"The overall economic impact on the United Kingdom and other European countries of the flight ban should be limited, but this will be of little comfort to those industries that are affected and to the people that are stranded or unable to travel," economists with IHS Global Insight said Monday in assessing the situation. "Obviously, the longer the problem goes on, the greater the potential hit to the economy."
Goods stack up as they wait to ship
Flower growers in Kenya worried their buds destined for Europe could rot before the airways reopened. "There's going to be a lot of people going into restaurants in the next few days wanting to order a piece of Atlantic salmon and it won't be there," says Brandon Fried, head of the Air Forwarders Association in Washington, which represents 330 companies involved in air freight.
"I'm most concerned about the medical shipments — either medicines or biologicals that need to be transported rather quickly," Fried says.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Flights resume in Europe but travel chaos isn't over
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Passengers wait to check in at Paris-Orly Airport on Monday.
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LONDON (AP) — Europe's busiest airport reopened Tuesday as air traffic across the continent lurched back to life. But the gridlock created by Iceland's volcanic ash plume was far from over: Officials said it would be weeks before all stranded travelers can be brought home.
Passengers wept with relief as flights took off from Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport, Amsterdam and elsewhere. A jetliner from Vancouver, British Columbia, was the first to land at London's Heathrow airport, the continent's busiest, since the volcano erupted last week.
British Airways said it hoped 24 other flights from the United States, Africa and Asia would land at Heathrow later in the day.
Travelers cheered as the first flights took off.
Jenny Lynn Cohen, waiting at Charles de Gaulle to travel to San Francisco, had a boarding pass but could hardly believe she was going to fly.
"I am a little afraid — I am hopeful that the plane will take off, and that it won't meet with any volcanic ash," she said.
ASH CLOUD THINS: Eruption loses fizz, reverts to lava
CREATIVE TRAVEL: Volcano-stranded fliers seek new ways home
IMPACT: Troubles from ash cloud spread beyond Europe
MAP: Ash cloud disrupts air traffic
The Eurocontrol air traffic agency said it expected just under half of the 27,500 flights over Europe to go ahead Tuesday, a marked improvement over the last few days. The agency predicted close to normal takeoffs by Friday.
It was the first day since the April 14 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) volcano — dormant for nearly 200 years — that travelers were given a reason for hope.
"The situation today is much improved," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations at the Brussels-based agency.
Conditions changed fast. Airspace in Germany remained officially closed, but about 800 flights were allowed at low altitude.
Rita and Peter Meyer said they had to share a hotel room with two strangers in Singapore while waiting to find a way home to Germany. News that they could fly to Frankfurt airport came as they slept.
"Just after midnight — after an hour's sleep — the phone rang (and they said), 'Everyone downstairs, get in taxis to the airport,"' Rita Meyer said.
But with more than 95,000 flights canceled in the last 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.
Passengers with current tickets were being given priority; those who had been stranded for days were told to either buy a new ticket or take their chances using the old one — a wait that could be days or weeks for the next available seat.
"Once your flight's canceled, you go to the back of the queue," said Laurie Price, director of aviation strategy at consultant Mott Macdonald, who was stranded in Halifax, Canada. "It seems intrinsically unfair."
The volcano that prompted the turmoil continued to rumble. Tremors could be heard and felt as far as 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the crater.
"It's like a shaking in the belly. People in the area are disturbed by this," said Kristin Vogfjord, a geologist at the Icelandic Met Office.
PHOTOS: Travel woes across Europe
TODAY IN THE SKY: Stranded travelers turn to social media
CRUISE LOG: Cruise lines in Europe scramble to get passengers to, from ships
HOTEL CHECK-IN: Hotels hike rates as volcanic ash strands travelers
SCIENCE: Eruption could last months
Scientists were worried that the eruption could trigger an even larger eruption at the nearby Katla volcano, which sits on the massive Myrdalsjokull icecap. Its last major eruption was in 1918.
"The activity of one volcano sometimes triggers the next one, and Katla has been active together with Eyjafjallajokull in the past," said Pall Einarsson, professor of geophysics at the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland.
Volcano experts say that should such an eruption occur, air travelers might expect more disruptions, depending on prevailing winds. Of Iceland's eight volcanic eruptions in the last 40 years, only the recent one at Eyjafjallajokull was followed by winds blowing southeast toward northern Europe.
While seismic activity at the volcano had increased, the ash plume appeared to be shrinking — though it wasn't moving very fast.
Sarah Holland of Britain's Meteorological office said the plume was being held over Britain by a high pressure system that showed no signs of changing.
"The weather patterns are very static at the moment. It's unusual to have that for such a long period of time," she said. "Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to stay that way for the next couple of days, bringing the ash over the U.K."
Early on Tuesday, a Eurocontrol volcanic ash map listed the airspace between Iceland and Britain and Ireland as a no-fly zone, along with much of the Baltic Sea and surrounding area.
Still, planes were allowed to fly above 20,000 feet in Britain, ahead of the reopening of airspace nationwide Tuesday evening.
Dozens of flights departed and arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport as the government announced that flights could be carried out in darkness using instruments. Airports in Switzerland, central Europe and Scandinavia also reopened, and some flights took off from Asia headed for southern Europe, where air travel was not affected. Spain piled on extra buses, trains and ferries to handle an expected rush of passengers.
Polish aviation authorities said they planned to reopen the country's airspace Wednesday morning.
Even the U.S. Air Force was grounded. Capt. Alysia Harvey, the spokeswoman for the U.S. Air Force's 48th Fighter Wing at Lakenheath, said all sorties had been canceled there since last Thursday. Lakenheath is the largest U.S. air base in England, and the only one in Europe that has an F-15 fighter wing.
"Flying was canceled because it's difficult to predict exactly where the cloud is going to be or the effect it will have on aircraft engines," she said.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Britons sought a way home.
Britain's Foreign Office acknowledged the enormity of the problem, informing Britons abroad that it may take a "matter of weeks before everyone can be repatriated."
Tom and Natalie Smith and their children Ben and Joanne, from Bristol, England, found themselves stranded after spending a week on the Costa Brava in Spain.
"We should have returned to work this morning," Tom Smith said. "Natalie is a diabetic and so that is also a concern as she may run out of medication depending on how long it takes to get back."
The government advised Britons to remain in close contact with their airline. Those in Europe were told to make their way to the French port of Calais, other Channel ports or a northern European port.
Thousands converged on the coast from across Europe by car, train and bus, evoking memories for some of the evacuation of the British army from Nazi-occupied France through the port of Dunkirk in 1940.
"You could say it is a bit of Dunkirk spirit," said Stanley Johnson, father of London mayor Boris Johnson, who was among some 800 soldiers and civilians picked up in Spain by a Royal Navy warship, HMS Albion.
The aviation industry — facing losses of more than $1 billion — has sharply criticized European governments' handling of the disruption that grounded thousands of flights on the continent.
Some carriers were using bigger planes and more flights, while others were hiring buses to help get customers to their destinations.
British Airways, which canceled about 500 flights a day in the past five days, said it was trying to clear its backlog. It said travelers could either rebook online or claim a full refund; it also urged travelers with reservations this week to consider canceling their trips so that it could maximize space to fly stranded people home.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 2h 11m ago | Comments 34 | Recommend 3 E-mail | Save | Print |
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Passengers wait to check in at Paris-Orly Airport on Monday.
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LONDON (AP) — Europe's busiest airport reopened Tuesday as air traffic across the continent lurched back to life. But the gridlock created by Iceland's volcanic ash plume was far from over: Officials said it would be weeks before all stranded travelers can be brought home.
Passengers wept with relief as flights took off from Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport, Amsterdam and elsewhere. A jetliner from Vancouver, British Columbia, was the first to land at London's Heathrow airport, the continent's busiest, since the volcano erupted last week.
British Airways said it hoped 24 other flights from the United States, Africa and Asia would land at Heathrow later in the day.
Travelers cheered as the first flights took off.
Jenny Lynn Cohen, waiting at Charles de Gaulle to travel to San Francisco, had a boarding pass but could hardly believe she was going to fly.
"I am a little afraid — I am hopeful that the plane will take off, and that it won't meet with any volcanic ash," she said.
ASH CLOUD THINS: Eruption loses fizz, reverts to lava
CREATIVE TRAVEL: Volcano-stranded fliers seek new ways home
IMPACT: Troubles from ash cloud spread beyond Europe
MAP: Ash cloud disrupts air traffic
The Eurocontrol air traffic agency said it expected just under half of the 27,500 flights over Europe to go ahead Tuesday, a marked improvement over the last few days. The agency predicted close to normal takeoffs by Friday.
It was the first day since the April 14 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) volcano — dormant for nearly 200 years — that travelers were given a reason for hope.
"The situation today is much improved," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations at the Brussels-based agency.
Conditions changed fast. Airspace in Germany remained officially closed, but about 800 flights were allowed at low altitude.
Rita and Peter Meyer said they had to share a hotel room with two strangers in Singapore while waiting to find a way home to Germany. News that they could fly to Frankfurt airport came as they slept.
"Just after midnight — after an hour's sleep — the phone rang (and they said), 'Everyone downstairs, get in taxis to the airport,"' Rita Meyer said.
But with more than 95,000 flights canceled in the last 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.
Passengers with current tickets were being given priority; those who had been stranded for days were told to either buy a new ticket or take their chances using the old one — a wait that could be days or weeks for the next available seat.
"Once your flight's canceled, you go to the back of the queue," said Laurie Price, director of aviation strategy at consultant Mott Macdonald, who was stranded in Halifax, Canada. "It seems intrinsically unfair."
The volcano that prompted the turmoil continued to rumble. Tremors could be heard and felt as far as 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the crater.
"It's like a shaking in the belly. People in the area are disturbed by this," said Kristin Vogfjord, a geologist at the Icelandic Met Office.
PHOTOS: Travel woes across Europe
TODAY IN THE SKY: Stranded travelers turn to social media
CRUISE LOG: Cruise lines in Europe scramble to get passengers to, from ships
HOTEL CHECK-IN: Hotels hike rates as volcanic ash strands travelers
SCIENCE: Eruption could last months
Scientists were worried that the eruption could trigger an even larger eruption at the nearby Katla volcano, which sits on the massive Myrdalsjokull icecap. Its last major eruption was in 1918.
"The activity of one volcano sometimes triggers the next one, and Katla has been active together with Eyjafjallajokull in the past," said Pall Einarsson, professor of geophysics at the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland.
Volcano experts say that should such an eruption occur, air travelers might expect more disruptions, depending on prevailing winds. Of Iceland's eight volcanic eruptions in the last 40 years, only the recent one at Eyjafjallajokull was followed by winds blowing southeast toward northern Europe.
While seismic activity at the volcano had increased, the ash plume appeared to be shrinking — though it wasn't moving very fast.
Sarah Holland of Britain's Meteorological office said the plume was being held over Britain by a high pressure system that showed no signs of changing.
"The weather patterns are very static at the moment. It's unusual to have that for such a long period of time," she said. "Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to stay that way for the next couple of days, bringing the ash over the U.K."
Early on Tuesday, a Eurocontrol volcanic ash map listed the airspace between Iceland and Britain and Ireland as a no-fly zone, along with much of the Baltic Sea and surrounding area.
Still, planes were allowed to fly above 20,000 feet in Britain, ahead of the reopening of airspace nationwide Tuesday evening.
Dozens of flights departed and arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport as the government announced that flights could be carried out in darkness using instruments. Airports in Switzerland, central Europe and Scandinavia also reopened, and some flights took off from Asia headed for southern Europe, where air travel was not affected. Spain piled on extra buses, trains and ferries to handle an expected rush of passengers.
Polish aviation authorities said they planned to reopen the country's airspace Wednesday morning.
Even the U.S. Air Force was grounded. Capt. Alysia Harvey, the spokeswoman for the U.S. Air Force's 48th Fighter Wing at Lakenheath, said all sorties had been canceled there since last Thursday. Lakenheath is the largest U.S. air base in England, and the only one in Europe that has an F-15 fighter wing.
"Flying was canceled because it's difficult to predict exactly where the cloud is going to be or the effect it will have on aircraft engines," she said.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Britons sought a way home.
Britain's Foreign Office acknowledged the enormity of the problem, informing Britons abroad that it may take a "matter of weeks before everyone can be repatriated."
Tom and Natalie Smith and their children Ben and Joanne, from Bristol, England, found themselves stranded after spending a week on the Costa Brava in Spain.
"We should have returned to work this morning," Tom Smith said. "Natalie is a diabetic and so that is also a concern as she may run out of medication depending on how long it takes to get back."
The government advised Britons to remain in close contact with their airline. Those in Europe were told to make their way to the French port of Calais, other Channel ports or a northern European port.
Thousands converged on the coast from across Europe by car, train and bus, evoking memories for some of the evacuation of the British army from Nazi-occupied France through the port of Dunkirk in 1940.
"You could say it is a bit of Dunkirk spirit," said Stanley Johnson, father of London mayor Boris Johnson, who was among some 800 soldiers and civilians picked up in Spain by a Royal Navy warship, HMS Albion.
The aviation industry — facing losses of more than $1 billion — has sharply criticized European governments' handling of the disruption that grounded thousands of flights on the continent.
Some carriers were using bigger planes and more flights, while others were hiring buses to help get customers to their destinations.
British Airways, which canceled about 500 flights a day in the past five days, said it was trying to clear its backlog. It said travelers could either rebook online or claim a full refund; it also urged travelers with reservations this week to consider canceling their trips so that it could maximize space to fly stranded people home.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Cost of Europe's Volcanic-Ash Travel Crisis
By Adam Smith / London Tuesday, Apr. 20, 2010
A covered turbine is seen on a Swiss International Airlines plane on a tarmac in Zurich
Christian Hartmann / Reuters
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Updated: 10:15 a.m. E.T., April 20, 2010
After five days of empty airports and silent skies, European Union transport ministers held an emergency meeting (via video conference) on Monday, announcing that they would ease travel restrictions starting Tuesday morning. The initial cloud of volcanic ash that brought Europe's airlines to a standstill seems to be finally dissipating — and now its financial impact is becoming clearer. TUI Travel, Europe's biggest tour operator, said in a statement that fallout from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano has so far cost the firm $30 million. With about 100,000 of its customers still marooned overseas, the company added, that bill is rising by $9 million a day. European airports, many deserted since dust spewed out by the volcano turned the region into a no-fly zone last week, are down $183 million as a result of the eruption, industry group ACI Europe said on Sunday. The world's airlines, meanwhile, are together estimated to have lost more than that each day.
Barely clear of the turbulence wreaked by the global financial crisis, it's a rotten time to be in the travel business. "Airlines are still weak," Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at brokers BGC Partners in London wrote in a note to clients on Monday. "This will have made them a lot weaker." But judging the eruption's impact on the European economy — itself knocked off course by the recent financial storm — is far trickier. "As each day goes, the situation will impact more on the wider business community and economy," Wheeldon wrote. Second-quarter growth from Europe to Asia, he said, could feel the effects "within days."
(See TIME's special report on the Icelandic volcano and resulting travel snafu.)
Plans by the U.K., Germany and others to begin reopening airspace on Tuesday have offered at least some, albeit temporary, relief. But the situation is far from over. A new ash cloud spreading south from the erupting volcano on Tuesday raised new concerns over the restoration of schedules. "This demonstrates the dynamic and rapidly changing conditions in which we are working," the National Air Traffic Services said in a statement. Scottish airspace is open, with the first international flight from Glasgow due to head for Reykjavik, Iceland, at noon BST (7 a.m. E.T.). Most of Scotland's airspace will remain available from 1300 to 1900 BST (0800-1400 E.T.), but there will be no flights from Glasgow after 1300 BST (0800 E.T.). No airports south of Newcastle — including all London airports — will open before 0100 BST (2000 E.T.) on Wednesday. Across Europe, the news was better with airports in central Europe and Scandinavia reopening, and most of southern Europe remaining clear. Eurocontrol, an air-traffic agency in Brussels, said it expects 55%-60% of flights over Europe to go ahead on Tuesday. And the first transatlantic commercial flight since April 15 left Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport for JFK in New York City. "We were in the hotel having breakfast, and we heard an aircraft take off. Everybody got up and applauded," says Bob Basso, 81, of San Diego, who has been in a hotel near Charles de Gaulle since his flight on April 16 was canceled.
(Comment on this story.)
But while planes start to take off, Europe's economy won't avoid more turbulence. Trade in the region, for one thing, will have been stymied by the ash. More of the world's commerce may be carried by road, rail or sea than by air — in Britain, airfreight accounts for just 1% of the country's total trade volume — but "disruption is potentially a problem," says Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at consultancy Capital Economics in London. Food and flower traders have plenty to fear: flight restrictions "may well impact southern Spain, which exports a large chunk of produce to northern Europe" at this time of year, says Peter Dixon, an economist at Commerzbank in London. (Kenyan growers — who were responsible for about one-third of Europe's imported flowers before their crops were grounded by the volcano — have been losing about $2 million a day.) European firms in the electronics and pharmaceutical industries, both of which rely heavily on "just in time" airfreight, have also had to seek out new supply routes.
(See pictures of the eerie beauty of Iceland's volcano.)
With euro-zone economies expected to expand just 1% this year, according to an Ernst & Young forecast published on April 16, the Icelandic ash has proved a nuisance. But it needn't be a major setback. Deprived of fresh stock, many firms will simply lean on their existing inventories until regular supplies resume. "A four- or five-day [flight] ban won't cut off the supply of goods instantly," says Dixon. The fact that the crisis unfolded over a weekend, during which freight activity is limited, will have helped. Moreover, "the rule from these sorts of things is that their effect tends to be smaller than it seems at the time," says Loynes. "Where you do see an impact, it's often made up in the following periods." The damage to the U.K. economy wrought by heavy snow in January, for instance, was "by and large made up in February," Loynes says.
(See why volcanic ash can be a hazard for air travel.)
So while most firms will probably escape any long-term damage — many hotel, bus and boat companies taking bookings from stranded air passengers will even have enjoyed an unexpected boost — the world's airlines are braced for a much rougher ride. Already facing losses of $2.8 billion in 2010, the cancellation of more than 60,000 flights in recent days could hardly have come at a worse time. British Airways, still reeling from a costly strike by cabin crew last month, demanded on Monday that U.K. and E.U. governments pay it compensation. Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association, slammed the handling of flight restrictions as a "European mess." Having already driven more than 300 miles on Sunday from his office in Switzerland to press the French government in Paris to resume flights, Bisignani began the 600-mile road trip to Berlin on Monday to do the same with German officials. As planes once again take to the skies over Europe, the region's chauffeurs can finally take a much-needed nap.
— With reporting by Vivienne Walt / Paris
By Adam Smith / London Tuesday, Apr. 20, 2010
A covered turbine is seen on a Swiss International Airlines plane on a tarmac in Zurich
Christian Hartmann / Reuters
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Updated: 10:15 a.m. E.T., April 20, 2010
After five days of empty airports and silent skies, European Union transport ministers held an emergency meeting (via video conference) on Monday, announcing that they would ease travel restrictions starting Tuesday morning. The initial cloud of volcanic ash that brought Europe's airlines to a standstill seems to be finally dissipating — and now its financial impact is becoming clearer. TUI Travel, Europe's biggest tour operator, said in a statement that fallout from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano has so far cost the firm $30 million. With about 100,000 of its customers still marooned overseas, the company added, that bill is rising by $9 million a day. European airports, many deserted since dust spewed out by the volcano turned the region into a no-fly zone last week, are down $183 million as a result of the eruption, industry group ACI Europe said on Sunday. The world's airlines, meanwhile, are together estimated to have lost more than that each day.
Barely clear of the turbulence wreaked by the global financial crisis, it's a rotten time to be in the travel business. "Airlines are still weak," Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at brokers BGC Partners in London wrote in a note to clients on Monday. "This will have made them a lot weaker." But judging the eruption's impact on the European economy — itself knocked off course by the recent financial storm — is far trickier. "As each day goes, the situation will impact more on the wider business community and economy," Wheeldon wrote. Second-quarter growth from Europe to Asia, he said, could feel the effects "within days."
(See TIME's special report on the Icelandic volcano and resulting travel snafu.)
Plans by the U.K., Germany and others to begin reopening airspace on Tuesday have offered at least some, albeit temporary, relief. But the situation is far from over. A new ash cloud spreading south from the erupting volcano on Tuesday raised new concerns over the restoration of schedules. "This demonstrates the dynamic and rapidly changing conditions in which we are working," the National Air Traffic Services said in a statement. Scottish airspace is open, with the first international flight from Glasgow due to head for Reykjavik, Iceland, at noon BST (7 a.m. E.T.). Most of Scotland's airspace will remain available from 1300 to 1900 BST (0800-1400 E.T.), but there will be no flights from Glasgow after 1300 BST (0800 E.T.). No airports south of Newcastle — including all London airports — will open before 0100 BST (2000 E.T.) on Wednesday. Across Europe, the news was better with airports in central Europe and Scandinavia reopening, and most of southern Europe remaining clear. Eurocontrol, an air-traffic agency in Brussels, said it expects 55%-60% of flights over Europe to go ahead on Tuesday. And the first transatlantic commercial flight since April 15 left Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport for JFK in New York City. "We were in the hotel having breakfast, and we heard an aircraft take off. Everybody got up and applauded," says Bob Basso, 81, of San Diego, who has been in a hotel near Charles de Gaulle since his flight on April 16 was canceled.
(Comment on this story.)
But while planes start to take off, Europe's economy won't avoid more turbulence. Trade in the region, for one thing, will have been stymied by the ash. More of the world's commerce may be carried by road, rail or sea than by air — in Britain, airfreight accounts for just 1% of the country's total trade volume — but "disruption is potentially a problem," says Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at consultancy Capital Economics in London. Food and flower traders have plenty to fear: flight restrictions "may well impact southern Spain, which exports a large chunk of produce to northern Europe" at this time of year, says Peter Dixon, an economist at Commerzbank in London. (Kenyan growers — who were responsible for about one-third of Europe's imported flowers before their crops were grounded by the volcano — have been losing about $2 million a day.) European firms in the electronics and pharmaceutical industries, both of which rely heavily on "just in time" airfreight, have also had to seek out new supply routes.
(See pictures of the eerie beauty of Iceland's volcano.)
With euro-zone economies expected to expand just 1% this year, according to an Ernst & Young forecast published on April 16, the Icelandic ash has proved a nuisance. But it needn't be a major setback. Deprived of fresh stock, many firms will simply lean on their existing inventories until regular supplies resume. "A four- or five-day [flight] ban won't cut off the supply of goods instantly," says Dixon. The fact that the crisis unfolded over a weekend, during which freight activity is limited, will have helped. Moreover, "the rule from these sorts of things is that their effect tends to be smaller than it seems at the time," says Loynes. "Where you do see an impact, it's often made up in the following periods." The damage to the U.K. economy wrought by heavy snow in January, for instance, was "by and large made up in February," Loynes says.
(See why volcanic ash can be a hazard for air travel.)
So while most firms will probably escape any long-term damage — many hotel, bus and boat companies taking bookings from stranded air passengers will even have enjoyed an unexpected boost — the world's airlines are braced for a much rougher ride. Already facing losses of $2.8 billion in 2010, the cancellation of more than 60,000 flights in recent days could hardly have come at a worse time. British Airways, still reeling from a costly strike by cabin crew last month, demanded on Monday that U.K. and E.U. governments pay it compensation. Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association, slammed the handling of flight restrictions as a "European mess." Having already driven more than 300 miles on Sunday from his office in Switzerland to press the French government in Paris to resume flights, Bisignani began the 600-mile road trip to Berlin on Monday to do the same with German officials. As planes once again take to the skies over Europe, the region's chauffeurs can finally take a much-needed nap.
— With reporting by Vivienne Walt / Paris
With Flights Grounded, Kenya's Produce Wilts
Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Workers at a flower farm in Kenya began discarding aging roses awaiting export on Monday as a cloud of volcanic ash continued to disrupt air travel throughout Europe.
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: April 19, 2010
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NAIROBI, Kenya — When Kenneth Maundu, general manager for Sunripe produce exporters, first heard about a volcano erupting in Iceland, he was excited. "I thought, 'Oh, wow, a volcano,' " he said.
Multimedia
Interactive Feature
Tracking the Cancellations
Related
New Ash Cloud Appears Headed Toward Britain (April 20, 2010)
Europe to Ease Aviation Ban, Amid Criticism (April 20, 2010)
Military Scrambles Soldiers, Staff and Supplies (April 20, 2010)
Previous Airline Brushes with Ash Disaster (April 20, 2010)
Insurers See Millions in Claims by Travelers (April 20, 2010)
Stranded Travelers Turn to Videoconferencing (April 20, 2010)
Times Topic: Iceland Volcano Eruption of 2010 (Eyjafjallajokull Volcano)
Enlarge This Image
Jehad Nga for The New York Times
Vegetables for Europe's supermarkets are dumped in Nairobi. Companies do not want produce with their labels to be given away.
And then reality hit him in the face like a hurled tomato.
Because Kenya's gourmet vegetable and cut-flower industry exports mainly to Europe, and because the cloud of volcanic ash has grounded flights to much of northern Europe since Thursday, its horticultural business has been waylaid as never before.
On Monday, Mr. Maundu stared at the towering wreckage: eight-feet-tall heaps of perfectly good carrots, onions, baby sweet corn and deliciously green sugar snap peas being dumped into the back of a pickup truck.
"Cow food," he said, shaking his head. "That's about all we can do with it now."
If farmers in Africa's Great Rift Valley ever doubted that they were intricately tied into the global economy, they know now that they are. Because of a volcanic eruption more than 5,000 miles away, Kenyan horticulture, which as the top foreign exchange earner is a critical piece of the national economy, is losing $3 million a day and shedding jobs.
The pickers are not picking. The washers are not washing. Temporary workers have been told to go home because refrigerated warehouses at the airport are stuffed with ripening fruit, vegetables and flowers, and there is no room for more until planes can take away the produce. Already, millions of roses, lilies and carnations have wilted.
"Volcano, volcano, volcano," grumbled Ronald Osotsi, whose $90-a-month job scrubbing baby courgettes, which are zucchinis, and French beans is now endangered. "That's all anyone is talking about." He sat on a log outside a vegetable processing plant in Nairobi, next to other glum-faced workers eating a cheap lunch of fried bread and beans.
Election-driven riots, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and stunningly bad harvests have all left their mark on Kenya's agriculture industry, which is based in the Rift Valley, Kenya's breadbasket and the cradle of mankind.
But industry insiders say they have never suffered like this.
"It's a terrible nightmare," said Stephen Mbithi, the chief executive officer of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya. He rattled off some figures: Two million pounds of fresh produce is normally shipped out of Kenya every night. Eighty-two percent of that goes to Europe, and more than a third goes solely to Britain, whose airports have been among those shut down by the volcano's eruption. Five thousand Kenyan field hands have been laid off in the past few days, and others may be jobless soon. The only way to alleviate this would be to restore the air bridge to Europe, which would necessitate the equivalent of 10 Boeing 747s of cargo space — per night.
"There is no diversionary market," Mr. Mbithi said. "Flowers and courgettes are not something the average Kenyan buys."
Thus, the trash heap of greens. At Sunripe, one of the most profitable sides of the business is prepackaging veggies for supermarkets in Europe. Most of the peppers, corn, carrots, broccoli and beans are grown in the Rift Valley, trucked to Nairobi, and then washed, chopped and shrink-wrapped. There are even some packages labeled "stir fry," which few Kenyans have ever heard about.
The vegetables are marked with the names of some of England's biggest supermarkets. (They requested not to be mentioned in this article.) But those supermarkets are very particular about their brands and do not allow Sunripe to give away excess produce with their labels on it.
So, on Monday, a man in a Sunripe lab coat and mesh hair net stood at the back of the pickup truck in the company's loading bay tearing open plastic bags of perfectly edible vegetables, each worth a couple of dollars, and shaking out the contents. Sunripe does give away unpackaged food, and two nuns from an orphanage stood nearby, waiting for some French beans.
Upstairs, Tiku Shah, whose family owns Sunripe, shouted into his cellphone. "Give us half the plane, you take half, we take half!" he said to someone.
"Arusha and Dar are also packed," he followed up, referring to two Tanzanian cities whose warehouses were full.
Before he hung up, he said, "I'm waiting for Raila to call."
Raila Odinga is Kenya's prime minister, and exporters are hoping that the Kenyan government will help defray the costs of organizing special cargo flights to ship out produce.
No one here knows when the flight chaos will end. Countless tourists are also stranded in Kenya, although many of them on spotless white-sand beaches.
By Monday afternoon, a few tons of vegetables had been flown to Spain, where airports had reopened. From there, the produce will be trucked the rest of the way to northern Europe.
"The cost is doubling," Mr. Shah said. "But we don't have a choice. If we don't have product on the shelves, our customers will look for alternatives."
Among them, he said, Guatemala was a rising threat, along with North Africa.
Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Workers at a flower farm in Kenya began discarding aging roses awaiting export on Monday as a cloud of volcanic ash continued to disrupt air travel throughout Europe.
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: April 19, 2010
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Share
NAIROBI, Kenya — When Kenneth Maundu, general manager for Sunripe produce exporters, first heard about a volcano erupting in Iceland, he was excited. "I thought, 'Oh, wow, a volcano,' " he said.
Multimedia
Interactive Feature
Tracking the Cancellations
Related
New Ash Cloud Appears Headed Toward Britain (April 20, 2010)
Europe to Ease Aviation Ban, Amid Criticism (April 20, 2010)
Military Scrambles Soldiers, Staff and Supplies (April 20, 2010)
Previous Airline Brushes with Ash Disaster (April 20, 2010)
Insurers See Millions in Claims by Travelers (April 20, 2010)
Stranded Travelers Turn to Videoconferencing (April 20, 2010)
Times Topic: Iceland Volcano Eruption of 2010 (Eyjafjallajokull Volcano)
Enlarge This Image
Jehad Nga for The New York Times
Vegetables for Europe's supermarkets are dumped in Nairobi. Companies do not want produce with their labels to be given away.
And then reality hit him in the face like a hurled tomato.
Because Kenya's gourmet vegetable and cut-flower industry exports mainly to Europe, and because the cloud of volcanic ash has grounded flights to much of northern Europe since Thursday, its horticultural business has been waylaid as never before.
On Monday, Mr. Maundu stared at the towering wreckage: eight-feet-tall heaps of perfectly good carrots, onions, baby sweet corn and deliciously green sugar snap peas being dumped into the back of a pickup truck.
"Cow food," he said, shaking his head. "That's about all we can do with it now."
If farmers in Africa's Great Rift Valley ever doubted that they were intricately tied into the global economy, they know now that they are. Because of a volcanic eruption more than 5,000 miles away, Kenyan horticulture, which as the top foreign exchange earner is a critical piece of the national economy, is losing $3 million a day and shedding jobs.
The pickers are not picking. The washers are not washing. Temporary workers have been told to go home because refrigerated warehouses at the airport are stuffed with ripening fruit, vegetables and flowers, and there is no room for more until planes can take away the produce. Already, millions of roses, lilies and carnations have wilted.
"Volcano, volcano, volcano," grumbled Ronald Osotsi, whose $90-a-month job scrubbing baby courgettes, which are zucchinis, and French beans is now endangered. "That's all anyone is talking about." He sat on a log outside a vegetable processing plant in Nairobi, next to other glum-faced workers eating a cheap lunch of fried bread and beans.
Election-driven riots, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and stunningly bad harvests have all left their mark on Kenya's agriculture industry, which is based in the Rift Valley, Kenya's breadbasket and the cradle of mankind.
But industry insiders say they have never suffered like this.
"It's a terrible nightmare," said Stephen Mbithi, the chief executive officer of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya. He rattled off some figures: Two million pounds of fresh produce is normally shipped out of Kenya every night. Eighty-two percent of that goes to Europe, and more than a third goes solely to Britain, whose airports have been among those shut down by the volcano's eruption. Five thousand Kenyan field hands have been laid off in the past few days, and others may be jobless soon. The only way to alleviate this would be to restore the air bridge to Europe, which would necessitate the equivalent of 10 Boeing 747s of cargo space — per night.
"There is no diversionary market," Mr. Mbithi said. "Flowers and courgettes are not something the average Kenyan buys."
Thus, the trash heap of greens. At Sunripe, one of the most profitable sides of the business is prepackaging veggies for supermarkets in Europe. Most of the peppers, corn, carrots, broccoli and beans are grown in the Rift Valley, trucked to Nairobi, and then washed, chopped and shrink-wrapped. There are even some packages labeled "stir fry," which few Kenyans have ever heard about.
The vegetables are marked with the names of some of England's biggest supermarkets. (They requested not to be mentioned in this article.) But those supermarkets are very particular about their brands and do not allow Sunripe to give away excess produce with their labels on it.
So, on Monday, a man in a Sunripe lab coat and mesh hair net stood at the back of the pickup truck in the company's loading bay tearing open plastic bags of perfectly edible vegetables, each worth a couple of dollars, and shaking out the contents. Sunripe does give away unpackaged food, and two nuns from an orphanage stood nearby, waiting for some French beans.
Upstairs, Tiku Shah, whose family owns Sunripe, shouted into his cellphone. "Give us half the plane, you take half, we take half!" he said to someone.
"Arusha and Dar are also packed," he followed up, referring to two Tanzanian cities whose warehouses were full.
Before he hung up, he said, "I'm waiting for Raila to call."
Raila Odinga is Kenya's prime minister, and exporters are hoping that the Kenyan government will help defray the costs of organizing special cargo flights to ship out produce.
No one here knows when the flight chaos will end. Countless tourists are also stranded in Kenya, although many of them on spotless white-sand beaches.
By Monday afternoon, a few tons of vegetables had been flown to Spain, where airports had reopened. From there, the produce will be trucked the rest of the way to northern Europe.
"The cost is doubling," Mr. Shah said. "But we don't have a choice. If we don't have product on the shelves, our customers will look for alternatives."
Among them, he said, Guatemala was a rising threat, along with North Africa.
Europe to Ease Aviation Ban, Amid Criticism
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Ash floated out to the Atlantic Ocean from an erupting Icelandic volcano on Monday.
By STEVEN ERLANGER and NICOLA CLARK
Published: April 19, 2010
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PARIS — European transport ministers announced a plan to begin easing the ban on aviation traffic around the Continent by Tuesday, but only after a barrage of criticism that the European Union had failed a fresh test of leadership.
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Tracking the Cancellations
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TimesCast | April 19, 2010
Photographs
Photographing Iceland's Fiery Volcano
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Times Topic: Iceland Volcano Eruption of 2010 (Eyjafjallajokull Volcano)
Enlarge This Image
Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
Passengers waited for a train to depart to Rome at Milano Centrale train station in Milan, Italy.
Enlarge This Image
Pierre-Philippe Marcou/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Madrid-Barajas airport in Madrid, Spain.
Enlarge This Image
Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press
Because of the aviation gridlock, a Dutch citizen at a Barcelona, Spain, airport had been waiting three days for a flight home.
The easing could begin to unravel the gridlock that many rate as the worst peacetime air travel disruption, a nearly weeklong halt in flights that stranded tens of thousands and cost airlines hundreds of millions of dollars.
Yet even if the ash spewed across European skies by a volcano in Iceland begins to dissipate soon, the region is grappling with a new blow to its ability to act decisively during an emergency. That is a problem that has plagued it repeatedly as it has struggled to manage swine flu, the financial crisis and the problem of Greek debt.
Most noisily, the head of the International Air Transport Association said before the announcement of a partial lifting of the aviation ban on Monday that "the decision Europe has made is with no risk assessment, no consultation, no coordination, no leadership." The industry group's director general and chief executive, Giovanni Bisignani, went further, saying that the crisis is a "European embarrassment" and "a European mess."
It took five days to organize a first conference call of the European transport ministers, Mr. Bisignani said, and with 750,000 passengers stranded, "Does it make sense?"
His words struck home with many. But given that the European Union does not control European airspace, a responsibility that rests with each individual country, some suggested that Mr. Bisignani was being a little too harsh — but only a little.
Jean Quatremer, the European Union correspondent for the French newspaper Libération, said the situation seemed "inexplicable to outsiders, that the Europe Union should regulate the size of peas but not the E.U. airspace."
Under Monday's agreement, the aviation authorities would carve airspace above the Continent into three zones: one closest to the volcano that would completely restrict air traffic; another zone that would set up partial restrictions on flights; and a third zone, free of ash, where flights could resume completely.
It was unclear precisely what portions of the Continent's airspace would be reopened when the agreement takes effect on Tuesday at 8 a.m. Paris time, but the European Union's transport commissioner, Siim Kallas, called the deal "good news for Europe's stranded passengers."
Adding to the uncertainty, however, the British air traffic control agency reported late Monday that the volcano's eruptions had strengthened, and a new ash cloud was headed south and east toward Britain and might affect the re-opening of some British airports.
The no-fly zone would cover one-third of the airspace until now designated as contaminated, said Bo Redeborn, the director of network design of Eurocontrol, which coordinates regional air traffic management. The authorities said they would perform test flights and monitor air conditions every six hours.
Even before European officials made their announcement, several countries said they would be easing or lifting flight bans as the volcanic eruptions weakened, spewing less ash.
The German carrier Lufthansa said that it had received permission from Germany's civil aviation authority to fly 50 aircraft into Germany carrying about 15,000 stranded passengers from Asia, Africa, and North and South America.
The scattered approach added to concerns that the region has no effective, collective mechanism for dealing with aviation problems.
European airspace is coordinated by Eurocontrol, an intergovernmental agency, not by the European Union, and each European government controls its own airspace, in part because of military and defense requirements.
But the real question, Mr. Quatremer said, is whether the European Union is competent or not, "and at what point should the E.U. activate itself?"
Fabrice Pothier, the director of Carnegie Europe, the Brussels center for the Carnegie Endowment, said that the ash problem grew slowly and was not at the start thought to be so long-lasting.
But, he said, politicians have the duty to give their citizens the confidence that crises are being managed for the collective good.
The technicians at Eurocontrol reacted quickly, Mr. Pothier said, but not the politicians. "The problem for Europe is that we have no political early-warning system, to say we have to come together politically. Technicians are fine, but on big issues you need leaders to make ultimate decisions, and that's where we're always a bit short, a bit late."
David Henderson, of the Association of European Airlines, said that Mr. Bisignani was "perhaps too harsh," but that governments were slow to coordinate and make decisions to close airspace based on the dimensions of the ash cloud, rather than trying to measure its density. "There's no transparency, and we don't know what's governing the decisions," he said.
Other analysts pointed to a general European obsession with safety, which is called "the precautionary principle." Essentially, European governments and their constituents believe that if the safety of something is not proven, it should not be allowed.
"Europe is the victim of the precautionary principle," Mr. Pothier said, of "an uncoordinated overreaction to possible risk." That led to a huge oversupply in swine flu vaccine, for instance, and, as Mr. Quatremer noted, the European aversion to genetically modified grain.
"It's the same principle for the ash cloud," he said. "We fear everything and want maximum safety for our citizens," just like the way in the United States, he said, the society will go to extremes to protect citizens from terrorism. "No one can argue with security," he said.
For Kenneth J. Button, a professor at George Mason University's School of Public Policy and a transportation economist, the airline association's criticism is expected as it continues to push for a "Single European Sky" program, as it has done for years.
"The E.U. has no legal responsibility at all; the responsibility is with the countries," Mr. Button said. "Everyone is being extremely cautious, because no country wants to be responsible for a crash," and the government, not the airline, would be blamed for a crash.
Mr. Bisignani expressed hope that the chaos would lead to a new momentum on creating a unified air traffic control system.
"This is really a failure of Europe," he said. While Europe has been able to remove borders on the ground, he added, "We haven't been able to take away the borders in the sky."
Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, said the region's carriers had approached the European Union and their national governments seeking financial compensation for the airspace closings.
"There is a precedent for this to happen, as compensation was paid after the closure of U.S. airspace following the terrorist events of 9/11, and clearly the impact of the current situation is more considerable," Mr. Walsh said in a statement.
James Kanter, Nadim Audi and Scott Sayare contributed reporting.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Ash floated out to the Atlantic Ocean from an erupting Icelandic volcano on Monday.
By STEVEN ERLANGER and NICOLA CLARK
Published: April 19, 2010
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PARIS — European transport ministers announced a plan to begin easing the ban on aviation traffic around the Continent by Tuesday, but only after a barrage of criticism that the European Union had failed a fresh test of leadership.
Multimedia
Interactive Feature
Tracking the Cancellations
Video
TimesCast | April 19, 2010
Photographs
Photographing Iceland's Fiery Volcano
Related
New Ash Cloud Appears Headed Toward Britain (April 20, 2010)
With Flights Grounded, Kenya's Produce Wilts (April 20, 2010)
Military Scrambles Soldiers, Staff and Supplies (April 20, 2010)
Insurers See Millions in Claims by Travelers (April 20, 2010)
Previous Airline Brushes with Ash Disaster (April 20, 2010)
Stranded Travelers Turn to Videoconferencing (April 20, 2010)
Times Topic: Iceland Volcano Eruption of 2010 (Eyjafjallajokull Volcano)
Enlarge This Image
Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
Passengers waited for a train to depart to Rome at Milano Centrale train station in Milan, Italy.
Enlarge This Image
Pierre-Philippe Marcou/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Madrid-Barajas airport in Madrid, Spain.
Enlarge This Image
Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press
Because of the aviation gridlock, a Dutch citizen at a Barcelona, Spain, airport had been waiting three days for a flight home.
The easing could begin to unravel the gridlock that many rate as the worst peacetime air travel disruption, a nearly weeklong halt in flights that stranded tens of thousands and cost airlines hundreds of millions of dollars.
Yet even if the ash spewed across European skies by a volcano in Iceland begins to dissipate soon, the region is grappling with a new blow to its ability to act decisively during an emergency. That is a problem that has plagued it repeatedly as it has struggled to manage swine flu, the financial crisis and the problem of Greek debt.
Most noisily, the head of the International Air Transport Association said before the announcement of a partial lifting of the aviation ban on Monday that "the decision Europe has made is with no risk assessment, no consultation, no coordination, no leadership." The industry group's director general and chief executive, Giovanni Bisignani, went further, saying that the crisis is a "European embarrassment" and "a European mess."
It took five days to organize a first conference call of the European transport ministers, Mr. Bisignani said, and with 750,000 passengers stranded, "Does it make sense?"
His words struck home with many. But given that the European Union does not control European airspace, a responsibility that rests with each individual country, some suggested that Mr. Bisignani was being a little too harsh — but only a little.
Jean Quatremer, the European Union correspondent for the French newspaper Libération, said the situation seemed "inexplicable to outsiders, that the Europe Union should regulate the size of peas but not the E.U. airspace."
Under Monday's agreement, the aviation authorities would carve airspace above the Continent into three zones: one closest to the volcano that would completely restrict air traffic; another zone that would set up partial restrictions on flights; and a third zone, free of ash, where flights could resume completely.
It was unclear precisely what portions of the Continent's airspace would be reopened when the agreement takes effect on Tuesday at 8 a.m. Paris time, but the European Union's transport commissioner, Siim Kallas, called the deal "good news for Europe's stranded passengers."
Adding to the uncertainty, however, the British air traffic control agency reported late Monday that the volcano's eruptions had strengthened, and a new ash cloud was headed south and east toward Britain and might affect the re-opening of some British airports.
The no-fly zone would cover one-third of the airspace until now designated as contaminated, said Bo Redeborn, the director of network design of Eurocontrol, which coordinates regional air traffic management. The authorities said they would perform test flights and monitor air conditions every six hours.
Even before European officials made their announcement, several countries said they would be easing or lifting flight bans as the volcanic eruptions weakened, spewing less ash.
The German carrier Lufthansa said that it had received permission from Germany's civil aviation authority to fly 50 aircraft into Germany carrying about 15,000 stranded passengers from Asia, Africa, and North and South America.
The scattered approach added to concerns that the region has no effective, collective mechanism for dealing with aviation problems.
European airspace is coordinated by Eurocontrol, an intergovernmental agency, not by the European Union, and each European government controls its own airspace, in part because of military and defense requirements.
But the real question, Mr. Quatremer said, is whether the European Union is competent or not, "and at what point should the E.U. activate itself?"
Fabrice Pothier, the director of Carnegie Europe, the Brussels center for the Carnegie Endowment, said that the ash problem grew slowly and was not at the start thought to be so long-lasting.
But, he said, politicians have the duty to give their citizens the confidence that crises are being managed for the collective good.
The technicians at Eurocontrol reacted quickly, Mr. Pothier said, but not the politicians. "The problem for Europe is that we have no political early-warning system, to say we have to come together politically. Technicians are fine, but on big issues you need leaders to make ultimate decisions, and that's where we're always a bit short, a bit late."
David Henderson, of the Association of European Airlines, said that Mr. Bisignani was "perhaps too harsh," but that governments were slow to coordinate and make decisions to close airspace based on the dimensions of the ash cloud, rather than trying to measure its density. "There's no transparency, and we don't know what's governing the decisions," he said.
Other analysts pointed to a general European obsession with safety, which is called "the precautionary principle." Essentially, European governments and their constituents believe that if the safety of something is not proven, it should not be allowed.
"Europe is the victim of the precautionary principle," Mr. Pothier said, of "an uncoordinated overreaction to possible risk." That led to a huge oversupply in swine flu vaccine, for instance, and, as Mr. Quatremer noted, the European aversion to genetically modified grain.
"It's the same principle for the ash cloud," he said. "We fear everything and want maximum safety for our citizens," just like the way in the United States, he said, the society will go to extremes to protect citizens from terrorism. "No one can argue with security," he said.
For Kenneth J. Button, a professor at George Mason University's School of Public Policy and a transportation economist, the airline association's criticism is expected as it continues to push for a "Single European Sky" program, as it has done for years.
"The E.U. has no legal responsibility at all; the responsibility is with the countries," Mr. Button said. "Everyone is being extremely cautious, because no country wants to be responsible for a crash," and the government, not the airline, would be blamed for a crash.
Mr. Bisignani expressed hope that the chaos would lead to a new momentum on creating a unified air traffic control system.
"This is really a failure of Europe," he said. While Europe has been able to remove borders on the ground, he added, "We haven't been able to take away the borders in the sky."
Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, said the region's carriers had approached the European Union and their national governments seeking financial compensation for the airspace closings.
"There is a precedent for this to happen, as compensation was paid after the closure of U.S. airspace following the terrorist events of 9/11, and clearly the impact of the current situation is more considerable," Mr. Walsh said in a statement.
James Kanter, Nadim Audi and Scott Sayare contributed reporting.
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