Europe’s skies were opened to air traffic on Wednesday, but the frustration associated with massive travel delays caused by ash belching from an erupting Icelandic volcano may continue for weeks as officials work to clear the backlog of cancelled flights and stranded passengers.
About 75 per cent of flights in Europe will operate on Wednesday – some 21,000 of the 28,000 flights normally scheduled, European air traffic agency Eurocontrol said. Almost all of European airspace below 6,000 metres was available, with restrictions in some areas such as southern Sweden and Helsinki.
"It is anticipated that these restrictions will gradually be lifted throughout the day," Eurocontrol said in a statement.
Britain, a major air hub and located squarely under the ash plume, reopened its airspace on Tuesday night, giving a boost to travellers and freight.
British Airways said on its website it would operate all its long-haul flights departing from Heathrow and Gatwick airports on Wednesday, but there would be short-haul cancellations to and from London airports until 1 p.m. local time.
While experts are unable to predict the volcano’s activity in the long term, scientists and airplane manufacturers had downgraded the risk of flying in areas of relatively low ash concentrations.
"The major barrier to resuming flight has been understanding tolerance levels of aircraft to ash. Manufacturers have now agreed increased tolerance levels in low ash density areas," Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority head Deidre Hutton said.
Icelandic officials said late on Tuesday there was less activity from the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, which has been erupting for almost a week, but strong winds could still leave Europe at the mercy of the cloud.
"There is ongoing activity in the volcano and we don’t see any signs of it coming to an end. There is less ash production, it is probably the same as yesterday," said Gudrun Nina Petersen from the Icelandic meteorological office.
"The plume is very low, so most of the ash is falling here and keeping itself under 20,000 feet (6,000 metres)," she said.
An expert from the World Meteorological Organization said in Geneva that a low pressure weather system moving into Iceland should help clear the ash cloud within days.
Other airlines also announced the resumption of flights to Europe.
Air France planned to run all long-haul flights on Wednesday, Poland was reopening its airspace and Finland said it would also do so. The Dutch allowed night flights after taking the lead in allowing passenger flights on Monday.
In Germany, the website for the Frankfurt airport hub on Wednesday showed a handful of early-morning flights arriving and departing but large numbers were listed as cancelled.
Australia’s Qantas Airways said it would begin flying to Europe on Wednesday, and flights from Beijing and other Chinese cities were returning to normal. Air China, the country’s main carrier, said on its website that its flights to Europe were "fully restored," but subject to changes in weather conditions.
Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom, and Hungary opened their airspace on Tuesday, as did Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Moldova.
European Union officials have faced significant criticism from the airline industry over the flight restrictions, which said it was losing billions of dollars in business, worse than after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Emirates Airlines, for one, said Tuesday it had lost about $65 million after cancelling 250 flights because of the ash cloud.
The Association of European Airlines, representing 36 major commercial and freight carriers, criticized Britain on Tuesday for not reopening its skies sooner.
"Other people look to the U.K. and say ‘Why are they still cautious when we are thinking of opening up?,’ and of course this can influence judgments," David Henderson, AEA manager of information, told Reuters before Britain lifted its no-fly zone.
The long-standing impact on the economy is also increasingly difficult to predict.
"I really don’t think you can model it," said Howard Archer, chief European and U.K. economist at IHS Global Insight. "There are so many uncertainties, unquantifiable knock-on effects, winners as well as losers."
The economic impact of the cloud could potentially dent the fragile recovery from the global recession.
PricewaterhouseCooper estimated a week of disruption could destroy around 0.025-0.05 per cent of annual British GDP, and the same would probably be true of other European countries.
However, the bust for the airlines was a boom for other tourism industry stalwarts – hotels were packed with stranded travellers, and train services and car rental agencies were also booming as people sought ways to move around Europe.
Luxury carmaker BMW said on Tuesday it was stopping production at some German plants due to a lack of electronic component deliveries. Nissan Motor Co is halting production on three lines in Japan.
But since most merchandise is transported by land and sea, the effect on global trade has been minimal.
"Only some perishables such as fresh fish and cut flowers, which are flown to Europe from countries such as Japan and Kenya, have suffered supply bottlenecks," said TD Bank Financial Group economist Martin Schwerdtfeger.
However, humanitarian flights have also been affected.
The U.S. military began evacuating war-wounded from Afghanistan to a base in Iraq, instead of sending them to Germany, and a polio immunization campaign in West Africa was delayed because the vaccines are stuck at French and German airports.
The ash cloud has also ruined a royal visit to Canada.
Princess Anne cancelled a visit to Halifax she had planned for Wednesday.
The Queen’s daughter was to have celebrated the anniversary of the Canadian Forces Medical Service, of which she is the colonel-in-chief. Lt. (Navy) Al Blondin of Canadian Forces Base Halifax said it wasn’t clear whether the visit would be rescheduled.
In a bit of good news, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank announced that a weekend meeting in Washington was going ahead.
With files from Canwest News Service, Financial Post, Reuters, and AFP
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