Iceland Volcano- Economic disaster?

James,
That is a mouthfull!

Currently the Transports are down big again - but also surprising are now the the Semi's, etc. - meanwhile the VIX has crossed its 50 MA, twice this morning, and is currently above as of this post. (Personally, I decided to wait this one out.)
VR
 
"A senior U.S. official told Reuters news service that glass buildup from the eruption was found in an engine of a NATO F-16 fighter plane, underscoring dangers to aircraft flying through the ash cloud."
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and
The tentacles of the crisis have already stretched into the global supply chain. Auto factories in China that use electronic parts flown in from Germany faced a sudden halt in shipments. A logjam forming in the international diamond trade threatened to delay the shipment of necklaces and wedding rings if flights are not resumed between cutters in India and dealers in Antwerp, Belgium.
"It is going to take us four or five days to get back to normal if the ban is lifted this week," said Rohit Mehta, president of the Surat Diamond Association in India. "But if it goes on for two or three weeks, it could seriously disrupt the diamond trade."
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Could get very, very ugly.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/19/AR2010041901101.html
 
Warrenlm said:
Airspace to reopen tomorrow.
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Figures.

Money wins out over safety every time.

Good thing that volcano stopped spewing it's ash, isn't it?


I wonder what will happen if the first 50 jets get through just fine, and then something happens to the 51st jet.

Who will be held accountable?
 
Airline losses from ash spiral over $1 billion


By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer Jamey Keaten,
Associated Press Writer – 42 mins ago

PARIS – As airline losses from the volcanic ash cloud spiraled over $1 billion on Monday, the industry demanded EU compensation and criticized European governments for not using scientific measures to evaluate the ash and open up their airspace.

Shares of some European airlines fell as flight disruptions from the volcanic cloud moved into a fifth day, and the International Air Transport Association complained of "no leadership" from government leaders — one of whom admitted to EU dissension about how to respond.

"It's embarrassing, and a European mess," IATA CEO Giovanni Bisignani told The Associated Press. "It took five days to organize a conference call with the ministers of transport and we are losing $200 million per day (and) 750,000 passengers are stranded all over. Does it make sense?"

European civil aviation authorities held a conference call Monday about what steps could be taken toward opening airspace, and transport ministers from all 27 EU member states were to hold another later in the day.

Dominique Bussereau, France's transport minister, told reporters Monday that he had urged EU president Spain ever since Saturday to call the ministerial meeting immediately — but Madrid declined.

"Naturally, it would have been better if had taken place Sunday or Saturday," Bussereau said.
British Airways said airlines have asked the EU for financial compensation for the closure of airspace, starting last Wednesday. With London among the first hubs shut down, the British carrier said it's losing as much as 20 million pounds ($30 million) per day.

BA Chief executive Willie Walsh said European airlines have asked the EU and national governments for financial compensation for the closure of airspace. He pointed to a precedent: compensation paid to airlines after the closure of U.S. airspace following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"This is an unprecedented situation that is having a huge impact on customers and airlines alike," Walsh said. "We continue to offer as much support as we can to our customers, however, these are extraordinary circumstances that are beyond all airlines' control."

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100419/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_world_airlines_volcano
 
The World Maritime Shipping Business should get a boost from this, isn't that right Birchtree?:cool:
 
This is starting to get ugly. The icing on the cake would be if "that other volcano in Iceland" would pop off and add to the misery.

The first headline I read this morning was that the British Navy was headed out to repatriate some citizens. Excellent job by the government buy it shows that they do not expect this to end soon.
 
PessOptimist said:
OK, so what's the solution?

If flying is allowed and nothing bad happens, it was just a (insert whatever) conspiracy.

If flying is allowed and an aircraft loses all power and ditches somewhere, it was malfeasance on the part of anyone who said it is OK to fly.

What to do, what to do?
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That's the problem.

There isn't any solution.

It is simply what it is. A volcano out there spewing right into mainland Europe- and as long as it does, there will be issues with air transport in that area.

So....hang on, this could be a rather poorly timed large hit on european economies. No human can do anything about it. All that can be done, is to wait it out.

We'll see where it goes.

Hope for a quick end to the cloud of ash. Because if it is a long term issue (say, like years) it could be very, very significant for those economies.
 
OK, so what's the solution?

If flying is allowed and nothing bad happens, it was just a (insert whatever) conspiracy.

If flying is allowed and an aircraft loses all power and ditches somewhere, it was malfeasance on the part of anyone who said it is OK to fly.

What to do, what to do?
 
Volcanic ash cloud: TV historian Dan Snow’s attempt to rescue stranded Britons thwarted by French

VIDEO: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8628653.stm

A Dunkirk-style rescue mission launched by television presenter Dan Snow to bring stranded travellers home from France was scuppered by French officials.

The historian and transatlantic adventurer set out across the English Channel on Sunday morning with a fleet of speedboats to help those effected by flight cancellations.

Many Eurostar services are sold out and ferry firms have been inundated, with passengers queueing for up to three hours to secure foot passenger tickets.

Mr Snow, 31, who last year presented a documentary on the Little Ships of Dunkirk, invited stranded Britons via Twitter to reserve a place on his boats.

He had planned to run a continuous ferry service back to Dover throughout Sunday – a 40 minute trip across the 26 mile stretch of the English Channel.

Any profits would go to the Help for Heroes charity. But French officials only allowed him to use three boats to rescue 25 people.

Arriving back in Dover, Snow said he was "disappointed" to have left so many people behind.

"The French shut us down – it's a real shame. I'm really a bit disappointed and feel bad for all the people we left behind.

"I got a lot of text messages saying 'where are you? We are at the rendezvous point'. I feel really sad about that."

Asked why the operation had been halted, Snow said: "They didn't like the idea of all those RIBs turning up and taking Brits back.

"They just told us they didn't like us doing it and said it was bad competition for the ferries."

On Sunday morning five RIBs – rigid inflatable boats – arrived at the French port.

The group had planned to ferry as many people as possible back to Britain during the course of the day.

Each round trip was expected to take two hours.
The team's effort was inspired by a recent project for the BBC marking the 70th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation.

They used boats borrowed from a Dover yachting firm and had appealed for people who urgently needed to get back to the UK to make contact with them on Twitter.

But a tweet on Sunday afternoon informed followers the mission had been aborted and apologised to those whose hopes of returning with the flotilla had been dashed.

The posting read: "We have been shut down! No reason. Rescued 25 on way home shortly. No more boats we are very sorry."

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/t...scue-stranded-Britons-thwarted-by-French.html
 
Business isn't taking the groundings lightly.

Take a look at today's UK newspapers:

Volcanic ash cloud: British Airways fly in the face of ban

British Airways last night challenged the blanket ban on flights as its chief executive took to the skies to test the effects of volcanic ash on its aircraft.

By Martin Evans, Alastair Jamieson, Richard Alleyne and David Millward
Published: 11:49PM BST 18 Apr 2010

The chaos caused by the eruption of an Icelandic volcano, now entering its fifth day, has left more than one million British travellers stranded abroad.

The unprecedented disruption to airline passengers, which has threatened to leave schools closed and businesses without workers after the Easter holidays, has already cost the economy £500million and is costing airlines worldwide £130million a day. Last night BA became the latest airline to challenge the necessity of the no-fly zone imposed by British air traffic authorities amid claims they had “overreacted”.

Willie Walsh, the airline’s chief executive, joined four crew in a three-hour test flight from London, over the Atlantic, to Cardiff. Today the airline will study the effects of the flight on engines before concluding whether it is safe to fly or not.

A BA spokesman said: “We would not be doing this if we did not think it was safe and didn’t have the necessary permission. We would not do anything which would jeopardise our crew or aircraft.”

The ban on flights is due to run until 7pm today at the earliest. The test flight came as Gordon Brown called a ministerial meeting amid suggestions the Government had been too slow to react. Five ministers – Lord Mandelson, Lord Adonis, Tessa Jowell, David Miliband and Lord West – lined up outside Number 10 after the talks to announce plans for Spain to be used as a transport ''hub’’ to try to get British travellers back home.

Spain’s airspace was opened up last night and plans were being made for British airline passengers to fly into Spain before being placed on naval or private ships to take them back to Britain.

With replacement bus, train and ferry services running out of capacity, the Tories earlier had proposed that ships be commandeered to get people back to Britain.

The Dutch airline KLM had earlier carried out a test flight through the ash cloud over Dutch airspace. A spokesman for the airline said: “We have not found anything unusual and no irregularities, which indicates the atmosphere is clean and safe to fly.”

Lufthansa also flew 10 aircraft from Munich to Frankfurt on Saturday with the blessing of the safety authorities.

A spokesman said: “We found no damage to the engines, fuselage or cockpit windows. This is why we are urging the aviation authorities to run more test flights rather than relying on computer models.”

Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, the Secretary General of the Association of European Airlines, said: “Verification flights undertaken by several of our airlines have revealed no irregularities at all; this confirms our requirement that other options should be deployed to determine genuine risk”.

Last night Ryanair announced 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 British time on Wednesday.

Theresa Villiers, the shadow transport secretary, said: “With thousands of Britons stuck in airports overseas, it is hugely worrying that there is no end in sight for the flight ban. This crisis is costing the economy millions of pounds every day and causing huge amounts of travel misery.

''Those who are stranded abroad need reassurance from the Government that they are doing all they can to help get people home and address the crisis.”

The blanket ban was initially imposed on Thursday by Nats, the national air traffic control service.

Keith Bill, a spokesman for the pilots union BALPA, challenged Nats to prove that they have taken advice from counterparts around the world who have greater experience of ash clouds caused by volcano eruptions.

Jo Gillespie, an aviation safety expert, said: “Without having the data to back up the decision this looks like an overreaction and is hugely damaging to the already suffering airline industry.”
 
That volcanic ash is some nasty stuff. If it gets on the engine blades, it turns to glass, so I'll wager the damage it can cause to aircraft far exceeds the potential profit to be made during that timeframe.
 
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