Airlines search for safe paths through ash as travel pressure mounts
irlines are searching for safe flight paths through the cloud of volcanic ash that has grounded most aircraft for the past four days.
British Airways plans to carry out a test flight from Heathrow to Cardiff this afternoon amid growing pressure to lift the ban, which has left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded around the world.
KLM, a Dutch airline, and the German airline Lufthansa have already carried out test flights in their countries’ airspace.
Nats, the air traffic control service, said that commercial flights across the UK would remain grounded until at least 7am tomorrow.
Forecasters have warned that the cloud of ash from the the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, in southern Iceland, could remain over Britain until at least the end of next week.
BA, Thomson, bmi and Flybe said that their flights in the affected area would not resume until Tuesday at the earliest.
Ryanair said it was cancelling all scheduled flights to and from the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, France, Germany, Poland and the Baltic States until 1pm UK time on Wednesday.
Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, said this morning that Nats and the Met Office were working with airlines to “ensure they are ready to fully exploit any respite in conditions which could allow some flights to operate”.
He said: “I wish to establish, as a matter of urgency, whether some safe flight paths can be identified and opened up to flights within the area affected by ash.
“I am in contact with other European transport ministers on this issue and urgent discussions are taking place with European and international regulatory agencies. We want to be able to resume flights as soon as possible, but safety remains my paramount concern.”
Transport ministers are to hold a video conference tomorrow on the crisis.
There was growing pressure on air traffic controllers to restore services after KLM and Lufthansa’s test flights yesterday.
KLM said that a Boeing 737 reached up to 41,000ft (12,500m), the maximum altitude at which the aircraft is certified to fly, in Dutch airspace without suffering any damage.
The Dutch airline, a subsidiary of Air France, said that it wanted to resume passenger flights in Europe as soon as possible, adding that it planned to return seven jets without passengers to Amsterdam from Düsseldorf.
Peter Hartman, chief executive of KLM, who was on board the test flight, said: “We observed no irregularities either during the flight or during the initial inspection on the ground.
“We hope to receive permission as soon as possible to start up our operation and to transport our passengers to their destinations.”
Mr Hartman was quoted as saying that he had begged Eurocontrol, the European air navigation safety agency, to consider lifting the flight ban but the agency has so far refused to discuss the matter.
Lufthansa, the German airline, flew ten empty planes to Frankfurt from Munich at heights of up to 26,250ft. Air France is to conduct a test flight over south western France later on Sunday.
Lufthansa and Air Berlin said that the ban on flights was ordered without proper testing and that their aircraft showed no signs of damage after the test flights.
Meanwhile, TV presenter Dan Snow’s mission to bring back home people stranded in France was halted by officials.
The historian had filled three rigid inflatable boats with 25 people but was told by officials in Calais that he would not be able to return.
Snow and his team had been planning on ferrying people back to Dover throughout Sunday. Each round trip was expected to take two hours.
Uefa confirmed that this week’s Champions League semi-final first legs would go ahead as scheduled.
Tuesday’s match between Inter Milan and Barcelona and Wednesday’s match between Bayern Munich and Lyon will take place as planned, and a decision will be taken “in the coming days” about Thursday’s two Europa League semi-finals between Atletico Madrid and Liverpool and Hamburg and Fulham.
The International Air Transport Association has warned that airlines will lose at least $200 million (£130 million) per day in revenues during the disruption.
The flight shutdown is estimated to have cost the European travel industry more than £1 billion, according Lewis PR, the crisis advisory company.
Paul Charles, a former senior director at Virgin Atlantic Airways and Eurostar, now of Lewis PR, said: “Airlines alone are facing a massive bill from lost revenues and the enormous costs of re-accommodating and repatriating stranded passengers.”
The British Airline Pilots’ Association is calling for a “banking-style” rescue of the airline industry because of the chaos caused by the ash.
Gordon Brown also sought to reassure air passengers that British airspace would be opened up “as quickly as possible”. The Prime Minister said that travel companies that were losing money may be able to claim compensation from the European Union.
Mr Brown told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show that the Government’s “first priority” was the safety of passengers and that he was relying on scientific evidence to decide when it was safe to fly.
“We want the minimum amount of disruption; we want to open up airspace as quickly as possible. We have to work with the rest of the EU to do it because everyone’s facing this similar challenge,” he said.
The Civil Aviation Authority said that Nats was following international safety guidelines by refusing to provides services to commercial jets.
The regulator said that its records show ten serious incidents involving volcanic ash, two of which — a British Airways Boeing 747 near Jakarta in 1982 and a KLM 747 near Anchorage in 1989 — resulted in all four of the aircrafts’ engines shutting down.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article7101247.ece
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