Ash April to impede airline industry recovery
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The unforeseen circumstances of this week, with
much of the airspace over Europe closed
due to ash pollution from a volcanic eruption
in Iceland, has set back the airline industry during a period
when performance recovery was fi nally starting to take place.
It was only last month (March 30) the International Air Transport
Association (IATA) announced that scheduled air traffi c was
showing signs of a sustained upturn with passenger demand up
9.5% in February compared to the same month in 2009.
IATA did state that passenger demand must recover by a further
1.4% to return to pre-crisis levels, but Director General and
CEO Giovanni Bisignani gave the industry a vote of confi dence
when he said “we are moving in the right direction”.
He also predicted that “in two to three months, the industry
should be back to pre-recession levels”.
And in terms of Middle East traffi c growth, the region topped all
others with a 25.8% reading.
Given these defi nite, yet fragile signs of recovery for an industry
truly battered by recessionary forces, the widespread fl ight
cancellations, although they could not have been avoided,
could really throw a spanner in the works.
As yet there are no fi gures estimating the losses to the aviation
industry of what will probably become known as Ash April or
something similar, but it’s fair to say that even individual airlines
with signifi cant operations in Europe would have lost millions on
a daily basis.
In these circumstances there are no contingency plans as
this ‘act of nature’ must be left to run its course and while ash
pollutes the airways, quite simply, airlines cannot risk fl ying.
But while many airlines are left reeling, spare a thought for
British Airways.
One has to wonder how many losses this airline can sustain
following spate of cabin crew strike action and then unstoppable
volcanic activity that grounded each and every one of its
aircraft.
At least during the industrial action there were contingency
plans in place and many aircraft still took to the skies, but on
this occasion, there was a total lockdown on all fl ights.
However, Association of British Travel (ABTA) Chairman told TDME’s sister
publication, TDUK, that BA’s strike-related
losses would pale into insignifi cance once
the total cost of the ash cloud impact calculated.
“For each day fl ights fail to operate, tens millions of pounds are lost,” he said.
“This could escalate into hundreds of if the problems continue.”
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