British Airways Plc said European carriers are seeking state aid as the closure of the region’s airspace following the volcanic eruption in Iceland costs $300 million U.S. a day in lost revenue.
Air France-KLM Group and Deutsche Lufthansa AG said separately that flight restrictions should be loosened, and the International Air Transport Association said governments should try to keep services running using flight paths clear of ash.
About 81,000 flights have been canceled since the April 14 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano spewed dust across Europe’s airspace, according to Eurocontrol, which oversees flight paths. About 70% of services are grounded today as the cloud stretches from Moscow almost as far as Canada.
Airlines are trying to provide as much support as possible to customers but the situation is "unprecedented" and beyond their control, Walsh said. European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said restrictions on aid may be eased as the impact of the disruption is discussed today.
Lost revenue from the restrictions amounts to as much as $300 million a day, according to IATA, which estimates that it will take as many as 6 days for air traffic to get back to normal once a ban ends, as carriers need to work through a backlog of stranded passengers and reposition their fleet.
Air France-KLM, Europe’s biggest airline, said it’s losing about 35 million euros ($47 million U.S.) a day in revenue and that a test flight yesterday using an Airbus SAS A320 showed "no anomalies." The Association of European Airlines, which represents 36 carriers, also said it’s seeking an "immediate" reassessment of the restrictions on services.
Germany’s Lufthansa is "appealing to the government day and night to get an easing of the ban," spokesman Andreas Bartels said by telephone. "There’s not much more we can do but keep knocking on the door. We’re an airline and we want to fly."
British Airways has canceled all flights to and from London through tomorrow and is losing 20 million pounds ($30 million U.S.) a day, Walsh said. The CEO was on a test flight yesterday from Heathrow to Cardiff that encountered "no difficulties."
U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he’s examining the financial impact of the shutdown on airlines and associated companies. Royal Navy aircraft carriers may be used to bring Britons back across the English Channel and people stuck in Asian and the America’s could be flown Spain and then put on buses, trains and ferries to complete their journey, he said.
Europe airline stocks slumped, with Air France-KLM dropping as much as 9.1%, British Airways 6.6% and Lufthansa 5.9%. Ryanair Holdings Plc, the region’s biggest discount carrier, fell as much as 6.6%.
Spain, holder of the European Union presidency, called a video conference among transport ministers today to discuss emergency plans. Volcanic ash can cause jet engines to fail by melting and then congealing in the turbines.
While Brussels-based Eurocontrol, predicts as much as half of Europe’s airspace may be "risk free" today, U.K. Transport Minister Andrew Adonis said yesterday that flights across northern Europe won’t be safe in the next 24 hours, citing advice given by the Met Office.
KLM operated 10 test flights with only a crew over the weekend and concluded that the quality of the atmosphere is "in order." Air France said its engineers found no visual impact during a flight from Paris to Toulouse and no problems with the jet afterwards. Lufthansa sent 10 aircraft from Munich to Frankfurt to reposition its fleet on April 17.
The disruption to European air traffic caused by the cloud of volcanic ash is "unsustainable," Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas told a briefing in Brussels yesterday. The Commission will set up a group to assess the impact of the ash cloud on the economy and European travel.
German Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer expects airspace restrictions to be maintained for "the coming days," he told the Bild newspaper in an interview published today.
French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, speaking to reporters yesterday, said he doesn’t expect a complete reopening of the European airspace "from one day to the next."
France’s airspace in the north and east, which includes the airports of Paris and Lyon, will remain closed until at least the morning of April 20. Civil aviation authorities reopened the airspace over the southwest, allowing Air France to fly seven long-haul flights from Toulouse today.
Germany’s DFS flight safety authority shut all of the country’s airports by 10 p.m. yesterday after easing a ban earlier on hubs including Berlin and Frankfurt. Airspace closure will remain until at least 8 p.m.
The Netherlands extended the closure of its airspace until 8 p.m. The U.K. remains restricted until at least 1 a.m., flight-control authority National Air Traffic Services said.
"Conditions around the movement of the layers of the volcanic ash cloud over the U.K. remain dynamic," NATS said in a statement.
Oslo’s Gardermoen airport opened its airspace for domestic and international flights again this morning. Sweden re-opened the area north of Soderhamn, including Kiruna airport. Airspace in northern Spain was shut.
Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region canceled most Europe- bound flights. Qantas Airways Ltd. axed services to European destinations through tomorrow. The shutdown is costing the Australian carrier as much as A$1.5 million ($1.4 million U.S.) a day, according to David Epstein, a spokesman.
Thai Airways International Pcl is losing 100 million baht ($3.1 million U.S.) a day from the closure, President Piyasvasti Amranand said in a Bloomberg TV interview today.
Singapore Airlines Ltd., Air China Ltd., Japan Airlines Corp., All Nippon Airways Co., Korean Air Lines Co. and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. have also canceled some flights to Europe.
United Parcel Service Inc., the world’s largest package- delivery firm, began trucking items from Asia through Istanbul and into Europe. The company made a flight from Dubai to Istanbul yesterday, then put those goods on trucks bound for Europe, according to spokesman Norman Black. UPS’s air hub in Cologne, Germany has been closed since April 16.
Haraldur Eiriksson, a meteorologist at the Icelandic meteorological office, predicts little change in the ash pattern in Europe at least through April 23.
"This could have an ongoing impact on European air travel," he said. "The forecast hasn’t changed, although the height the volcano is spewing the ash into has decreased from five to six kilometres to less than three kilometres and now it can’t be seen on our radars."
The last eruption of the 1,666-metre (5,466-foot) Eyjafjallajökull in December 1821 continued until January 1823. The current blast has sent ash as high as 7 kilometres (4.5 miles), according to Gudrun Larsen, a volcanologist at the University of Iceland. The magma had to pierce 200 metres of ice before reaching the air, she said.
The volcanic ash cloud also led world leaders, including Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to cancel plans to attend yesterday’s funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, killed with 95 others in an April 10 plane crash.
The U.S.-based Air Transport Association said yesterday that 310 non-stop flights scheduled between the U.S. and Europe, or 92% of the total for the day, were canceled.
Delta Air Lines Inc., the world’s largest carrier, scrapped 97 flights yesterday to and from Europe, spokesman Anthony Black said. A further 49 flights have been grounded for today. AMR Corp.’s American Airlines canceled 60 European flights.
The eruption began on March 20 with a lava flow on the eastern flank of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, according to the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland. After a lull, it resumed early on April 14, directly under the icecap that covers most of the mountain.
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