Airlines operating in Europe have suffered huge losses since Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano began erupting Wednesday for the second time in a month, spewing a cloud of ash over Europe that has grounded flights and stranded passengers.
On April 19, the EU transportation ministers will hold a video conference to draft an action plan. Airlines are testing whether flights are possible in these adverse conditions; so far they have made 27 successful trial flights between cities in Europe.
What else can the airlines do to reopen air traffic?
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the crisis is costing the industry an estimated 150 million euros ($200 million) a day excluding on the costs of changing flight routes and compensating stranded passengers.
European airlines have requested that aviation authorities loosen flight restrictions, citing the enormous economic effects of the ban. A total of 63,000 flights have been cancelled as a result of the ash cloud.
According to the Airports Council International (ACI), 313 airports in Europe have ground to a halt, and weather forecasts leave no hope for a rapid reopening of the European air space. The ash cloud will remain over Europe for four or five days, they said.
Ready to fly
European airlines do not want to wait that long. The Association of European Airlines (AEA), which represents 36 carriers, said: "While Europe's airlines and airports consider safety to be an absolute priority, they are questioning the proportionality of the flight restrictions currently imposed."
The AEA said, "airlines must be able to fly where it is safe to fly and make decisions accordingly."
To support its argument, the AEA points to the 27 test flights carried out by Lufthansa, Air France and KLM with only a crew on board. These flights "revealed no irregularities at all" even though the ash cloud was still hanging over a considerable part of the northern and central Europe.
Changing corridors and flight levels
Since the test flights were successful, the air space over Europe will gradually reopen, says Boris Rybak, head of the Russian consulting firm, Infomost. However, air authorities may have to adjust air corridors and flight levels to direct planes south of the ash cloud, he told RIA Novosti.
The standard altitude of 10,000-11,000 meters (32,810-36,100 feet) is optimal in terms of the flight speed to fuel consumption ratio, but it could be changed temporarily for safety reasons. However, flying at a lower altitude will increase flight costs, which could theoretically increase airfare.
The ash cloud should be monitored and studied more closely, as ash concentration varies over Europe, with some regions posing a greater risk than others.
"Aircraft designers do not consider ash clouds when designing aircraft," Rybak said. "Therefore, we have no reliable information about the dangers of flying in such conditions. Nobody knows for certain which ash concentrations are dangerous."
Collecting and analyzing this information could prevent a total ban on flights over Europe.
The EU transport ministers will hold a video conference in the late afternoon on Monday to discuss the damage done by the ash cloud and possible assistance to the thousands of stranded passengers, and to try to coordinate airport re-openings.
Tourists lose money
The thousands of tourists stranded in Europe's airports have two options: they can either continue to wait for flights to resume or opt for rail or bus transportation instead. So far, airlines have been willing to reimburse customers or book them later flights.
Tourists traveling on their own will come through relatively unscathed, as they can simply cancel their flight and hotel reservations. Even if they cancel on the date of departure, hotel penalties are usually limited the cost of one night's stay for each room booked.
Tourists who booked their trips through tour operators will fare much worse. The Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) said on its web site that the volcanic eruption in Iceland is a force majeure circumstance according to Article 401 of the Russian Civil Code.
"In case of force majeure, the parties bear no financial responsibility for failure to fulfill their obligations," ATOR said. "Therefore, the airlines and tourist operators will not be obliged to compensate tourists' losses."
Tourists who want to cancel their upcoming flights will be reimbursed the cost of their vouchers minus the tour operator's losses. But since the operator has paid for their travel and hotel reservation, the tourists will lose nearly everything they paid.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
MOSCOW (RIA Novosti economic commentator Maria Selivanova)
