THUNDER BAY – Shifting winds over the North Atlantic, pushing volcanic ash and dust toward Europe have continued to cause problems for air travellers and airlines. The clouds have impacted most European airlines, as airports across Europe are remaining closed. On Friday, there were 18,000 flights cancelled.The impact on the airlines is estimated at $200,000,000.00 daily.
“EUROCONTROL expects approximately 6,000 flights to take place today in European airspace. On a normal Saturday, we would expect 22,000. Yesterday, 16 April, there were 10,400 flights compared to the normal 28,000,” according to the European air traffic control authority.
“No landings and take offs are possible for civilian aircraft across most of northern and central Europe . This includes Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Northern France, most of Germany, Hungary, Ireland, northern Italy, the Netherlands, southern Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. In some of these areas the upper airspace has been made available, depending on the observed and forecasted area of ash contamination. However, it is difficult to access this airspace as in most cases the surrounding area is not available for flights”.
Travellers are requested to contact their airline for the latest updates. As the situation appears today, there may be a change by Sunday.
Links:
Twitter Feed for Eurocontrol: http://twitter.com/eurocontrol
Flight Radar: http://www.flightradar24.com/