AVIATION RISKS:THE EU authorities are reviewing air safety rules to see whether it would be possible to ease the flight bans that have crippled European air travel before volcanic ash from an eruption in Iceland completely dissipates.
The disruption is set to continue into the first half of the week although Spain, which holds the EU presidency, said it was possible that up to half of planned flights may operate today.
This would mark an improvement in conditions after Eurocontrol, the European aviation body, said some 20,000 of almost 25,000 flights that would operate on a normal Sunday did not fly.
As airlines piled pressure on air regulators by conducting test flights without incident in European airspace, EU transport commissioner Slim Kallas said last night that the situation was “not sustainable”. With millions of passengers disrupted and economic costs mounting by the hour, the commissioner added that officials were working to find a solution that did not compromise safety. “We cannot wait until the ash flows just disappears,” Mr Kallas said.
In a telephone conference today, EU transport ministers will assess information from test flights. Airlines and airport operators have criticised the fact that the decision to close vast swathes of airspace was made in line with the findings of computer simulation.
“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,” said Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, general secretary of the Association of European Airlines.
Mr Kallas said last night that the European authorities may be able to make a decision based on new information from test flights over the weekend.
“All these new elements should be taken into account in the technical meeting . . . We have to deliver a more accurate European solution to open progressively European air space.”
The airlines conducting tests included Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, which each said they managed to fly aircraft without damage. KLM, the Dutch unit of Air France, flew nine test flights after an initial flight found the atmosphere to be in order.
Lufthansa sent 10 planes to Frankfurt from Munich to reposition its fleet and said there wasn’t the “smallest scratch” on the planes. The lock-down paralysed flights over the weekend, causing massive disruption throughout Europe. A crucial meeting planned today in Athens of EU, IMF and Greek government officials on a possible aid plan for the country has been postponed until Wednesday. Today’s planned meeting in Luxembourg of agriculture and fisheries ministers has also been cancelled.
There would be 28,000 flights on a normal Monday, according to Eurocontrol.“The forecast is that there will be half of flights possibly operating tomorrow. It will be difficult; that’s why we have to co-ordinate,” said Diego Lopez Garrido, Spain’s secretary of state for EU affairs after a meeting at Eurocontrol. European Commission president José Manuel Barroso said the EU executive was setting up a review group to assess the economic impact of the ash cloud.
