Paris Open, London Closed as Ash Breeds Airport Confusion
An aerial photo shows smoke rising from the volcano under a glacier in the Eyjafjallajokull region of Iceland, on April 14, 2010. Photographer: Arni Saeberg/Bloomberg
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Douglas McNeill, an equity analyst at Charles Stanley Securities Ltd., talks with Bloomberg's Andrea Catherwood about the impact on airline earnings of the flight ban in northern Europe. (Source: Bloomberg)
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Eric Coleman reports on efforts to reopen European airspace closed by the volcanic eruption in Iceland and the cost to grounded airlines. (Source: Bloomberg)
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Chayanin Sukkhasantikul, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, talks with Bloomberg's Mark Barton about the outlook for airlines affected by the flight ban in northern Europe. (Source: Bloomberg)
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Anastasia Haydulina reports on British travelers' efforts to return home after Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption prompted the shutdown of European airspace. (Source: Bloomberg)
April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Zeb Eckert reports on the impact of flight cancellations caused by the cloud of Icelandic volcanic ash over Europe on the world's busiest cargo hub, Hong Kong. (Source: Bloomberg)
Europe’s air-traffic controllers can’t agree on whether it’s safe to fly through the Icelandic ash cloud as airports in Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam reopen while London’s Heathrow hub remains closed.
Services from Paris’s Charles de Gaulle and Orly terminals resumed this morning, with 30 percent of flights likely to operate, according to French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau. Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, probably won’t reopen today, Britain’s National Air Traffic Services said.
“They are using a different model in Paris and other parts of Europe and we are speaking to the authorities about this,” said Richard Goodfellow, a spokesman for British Airways Plc, which uses Heathrow as its main hub. The carrier said NATS was to blame for six days of disruption to its services.
About 13,000 flights should take place in Europe today, or 46 percent of the usual total, as flight bans imposed after the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano are eased, according to Brussels-based Eurocontrol, which oversees flight paths in the region. Airspace is still restricted in 10 countries, based on decisions by local traffic control bodies.
Mounting Losses
Ash represents a threat to jetliners because it could stop their engines by melting and congealing in turbines. European Union transport ministers agreed yesterday to loosen limits on flying after airline losses reached as much as $300 million a day, according the International Air Transport Association.
Under the EU accord, the U.K. Met Office’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre is supplying maps showing areas where ash concentrations are more than 10 times normal levels and flights are banned, together with ones where the dust is thinner. Local controllers must decide whether to permit flying in those zones.
“They have to make a decision about the safest thing to do,” Eurocontrol spokeswoman Kyla Evans said in an interview. “Using the more detailed information available, some have decided to open a little bit, some are waiting a bit longer and some have said that flying will open up completely.”
As of midday, the ash plume covered a swath of Europe from Ireland to Russia, including northern France and Italy and the whole of Germany, Denmark, the Benelux nations, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania, according to the Met Office. Most of Scandinavia and Scotland are ash free, as is the Iberian peninsula.
BA Thwarted
British Airways, the largest carrier between London and New York, said after yesterday’s EU meeting that it would resume flights from the U.K. capital at 7 p.m. today. It later scrapped short-haul services throughout the country, together with all long-haul departures, after NATS warned of a new ash cloud.
The company, losing 20 million pounds ($30 million) a day in revenue, still wants to operate more than a dozen inter- continental routes into Heathrow and with aircraft already in the air is monitoring airport availability, Goodfellow said.
Among Air France arrivals at Charles de Gaulle this morning were services from Los Angeles and New York, while planes departed for Beirut, Algiers and Cairo. Flights to European destinations were schedule to resume at noon.
France’s civil-aviation authority, the DGAC, opened Paris- area airports after Air France completed trial flights from the capital to Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille and Nice without incident, spokesman Eric Heraud said by telephone.
“We feel vindicated that we took the decision to open our airspace,” French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said in a press conference, adding that all long-haul routes will operate tomorrow, together with 60 percent of mid-range ones.
Three-Hour Test
Paris and London are both under the same ash cloud as modeled by the Met Office and a British Airways plane also flew a three-hour test flight from the U.K. capital without incident.
Faced with similar data, “it’s for each authority to reach the interpretation it considers most appropriate,” Heraud said.
The U.K.’s relative proximity to the eruption has been a factor in the decisions taken about airport openings, Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis said today in an interview.
“Britain is closer to Iceland than other parts of Europe and we’ve been more severely affected, so judgments we make here may not be the same judgments made in Europe,” he said.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG intends to operate 200 flights today under visual flight rules after receiving special clearance from German air-traffic regulator Deutsche Flugsicherung, spokeswoman Claudia Lange said in a telephone interview today.
The carrier will operate the majority of long-haul services to destinations including New York, Boston and Miami, as well as some flights within Europe and Germany, she said. German airspace is officially closed for normal flight rules until 2 a.m. local time, DFS said.
SAS Impact
SAS AB, the unprofitable owner of Scandinavian Airlines, one of the carriers worst-affected by the shutdown, said most U.S. and Asian flights would operate today, though the bulk of European services have been cancelled. Sweden’s main airport, Stockholm Arlanda, is open and airspace to the south is closed.
With planes out of position and airlines concentrating on repatriating stranded passengers, the restoration of full timetables may take six days, according to IATA.
Flight bans imposed after the April 14 eruption in Iceland grounded 95,000 services through today, Eurocontrol said in a statement. Restrictions remain in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine and parts of France and Italy. Airspace above 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) is also open.
Not Normal
“It’s a long way short of any semblance of normal operations,” said John Strickland, an analyst at JLS Consulting Ltd. in London.
In the U.K., skies over Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen were reopened to limited services at 7 a.m., according to BAA Ltd., which owns the airports in the Scottish cities.
European airlines have asked governments and the European Union for aid, British Airways Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh said yesterday, adding that money was paid after the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S. “and clearly the impact of the current situation is more considerable.”
European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said restrictions on aid may be eased as the impact of the disruption is discussed by ministers.
U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today that “every aspect of contingency planning is being looked at” in order to restore flights and repatriate stranded Britons.
“We know that further volcanic ash will be in the clouds over the next day or two, so we are taking advantage of the window of opportunity,” Brown told reporters in London. “We are having discussions with the manufacturers, airline authorities, safety representatives and the Met Office about what would be safe corridors that we might be able to use.”
More Ash
A northwesterly wind will continue to blow over Iceland today and tomorrow, funneling more ash toward northern and western Europe, Arni Sigurdsson, a meteorologist at the Icelandic Met Office, in a telephone interview.
The Eyjafjallajökull eruption began on March 20 with a lava flow on the eastern flank of the volcano, according to the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland. After a lull, it resumed early on April 14, directly under the glacier that covers most of the mountain. The previous eruption of the 1,666-meter peak in December 1821 continued until January 1823.
Asian carriers including Singapore Airlines Ltd., Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Air China Ltd. have added extra flights or larger planes on services to Rome and other open airports to help stranded passengers.
U.S. Services
Delta Air Lines Inc., the world’s largest carrier, will operate about half of its normal European services today and aims to fly all of them tomorrow, President Ed Bastian said on a conference call with investors and analysts.
Resuming services to Heathrow and Frankfurt will be “most challenging” because of congestion and pent-up demand, Bastian said. The cancellations have had a $20 million cumulative impact on Delta so far, he said.
UAL Corp.’s United Airlines intends to operate all of its flights from the U.S. to Europe later today and have a “full recovery” with normal schedules by tomorrow, said Robin Urbanski, a spokeswoman for the Chicago-based carrier.
AMR Corp.’s American Airlines canceled 62 European flights today because of ash from a new eruption, spokesman Tim Wagner said in an e-mail. The airline will operate flights between the U.S. and Madrid, Barcelona and Rome, he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Steve Rothwell in London at srothwell@bloomberg.net; Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.
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