Tuesday 20th of April 2010 – Volcanic Ash still causing chaos
Some domestic UK flights have taken off after five days of disruption but a second volcanic ash cloud from Iceland has hit plans to reopen airspace.
The first planes from Edinburgh and Glasgow were among a few internal flights scheduled from Scotland.
Air traffic control body Nats said a new ash cloud meant uncertainty and the situation was worsening in some areas.
An estimated 150,000 Brits have been stranded overseas as a result of the flight restrictions.
The hope had been that the intensity of volcanic eruptions was reducing, but the emergence of a new ash cloud has meant plans to reopen British airspace have been revised.
It is still unclear how long that disruption will last, but the longer flights are grounded, the greater the impact will be on businesses and the wider economy.
AIRLINES
The most direct casualty of the ash is the airline industry.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that airlines are collectively losing £130m per day in lost revenues.
If the disruption persists for several weeks, total losses could run into billions, having a catastrophic effect on an industry already set to lose £1.4bn this year.
Travel companies are also losing out. TUI, the owner of First Choice and Thomson and Europe’s biggest travel operator, says it is losing between £5m and £6m a day.
The Prime Minister Gordon Brown admitted the problem was so serious that financial help for airlines would be considered.
OTHER TRANSPORT
Other transport companies are benefiting as passengers look for alternatives to flying.P&O Ferry
Ferry services have benefited from the flight restrictionsEurostar in particular has seen huge demand from passengers since the disruption began on Thursday.
The company said it carried 50,000 extra passengers on Thursday and Friday – an increase of nearly a third – with services effectively full.
Over the weekend, it began laying on extra services, with six extra trains planned for Monday.
Train services between Scotland and the south of England are also reporting a big rise in passenger numbers, as are cross-channel ferry companies.
P&O ferries says its services between Spain, France, Holland and the UK are currently either full or close to full, with extra staff drafted in to the call centre to handle the huge volume of calls.
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
International trade relies more heavily on road, rail and sea freight than it does on air freight.For example, just 1% of the UK’s trade, by volume, is carried by air.
But the disruption has becaused real problems for those trading perishable goods, including food and flowers, which depend on air freight.
Flowers
Exporters of perishable goods, such as flowers, are being badly affectedFood exports from Africa and the Caribbean are among those hit, with reports of Kenyan farmers being forced to dump stocks of fresh food and flowers destined for European consumers.
According to a report in Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper, the Kenyan economy is losing $3.8m a day as a result of flight cancellations to Europe.
That scale of losses is expected to be repeated in agriculture-based economies across Africa and South America.
Supermarkets’ supplies of some fresh produce could soon be affected, though no problems have yet been reported by UK retailers.
Meanwhile, carmaker Nissan has also announced a one-day suspension of production of three of its models in Japan because it has been unable to import parts from the Irish Republic.