VANCOUVER — All flights going to and coming from Europe via Vancouver Airport have been cancelled Saturday morning as a massive cloud of volcanic ash continues to spread across Europe.
Four outbound flights have been cancelled including a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, a KLM flight to Amsterdam and two flights to London Heathrow run by Air Canada and British Airways.
The same outbound flights have also been waylaid.
The volcano under Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier began erupting for the second time in one month Wednesday, spewing a massive plume of ash up to 11 kilometres in the sky and prompting aviation authorities to close airspace as a safety precaution. The eruption has caused the worst aviation disruption since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"This is Mother Nature at work," said YVR spokeswoman Rebecca Catley. "It’s just unfortunate that this is happening in one of the busiest fly ways around the world."
Catley said these nature-driven diversions occur more often than people may realize. Just last summer Catley said that cargo planes were diverted to Vancouver from Alaska due to an erupting volcano in the north.
Passengers have also been staying away from the airport and calling their travel agents or airlines to find out what is happening meaning few lines or travel-weary passengers in YVR.
"This is front page news, so people are really aware of it," Catley said. " They are staying in their hotels or they are taking advantage of having a couple more days in Vancouver and being tourists."
The delays are costing airlines million of dollars a day, but they aren’t the only ones missing out on profits. Airports are not able to collect valuable landing fees from the grounded planes. Catley said the lost landing fees for Vancouver Airport are minimal since there are only four flights that arrive from Europe each day.
All Europe-bound passengers are urged to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport, either with their airlines or at www.yvr.ca.
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