Perilous Times
Volcanic ash crisis cost airlines £2.2 billion
The Icelandic volcano ash crisis has cost the airlines €2.5 billion
(£2.2 billion), according to the European Union's executive body.
Published: 1:03PM BST 27 Apr 2010
The Telegraph UK
Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said the economic impact of the
weeklong crisis had caused losses of estimated at between €1.5-2.5
billion.
The closure of a large chunk of European airspace due to the volcanic
eruption in southern Iceland caused the cancellation of more than
100,000 flights, and left 10 million passengers stranded.
Mr Kallas has called for a sweeping reform of air traffic control and
short-term relief like lifting bans on night time flights, to help
airlines cope with the losses.
He said the European Commission, which he briefed on the problems, was
asking member nations to provide airlines immediate relief with
measures such as making market-rate loans and deferring payments for
air traffic control services.
Lifting restrictions on night-time flights meant to maintain quiet in
neighbourhoods around airports would help airlines repatriate stranded
passengers and get delayed freight deliveries to their destinations, he
said.
However, Kallas warned EU member states not to grant airlines state aid
other than loans at market rates or guarantees as a way of improving
their immediate cash flow problems.
"This must be granted on the basis of uniform criteria established at
the European level," he said. "It cannot be used to allow unfair
assistance to companies which is not directly related to the crisis."
Mr Kallas has called an emergency meeting of EU transport ministers May
4 to fast-track the wholesale reform of Europe's fragmented air traffic
system.
"Europe needs a single regulator for a single European sky," he said,
adding that the first elements of the so-called Single European Sky
could be in place by the end of 2010.
Unified airspace would also put the skies under one regulatory body
instead of leaving decisions to dozens of individual countries – one of
the key sources of confusion in the volcanic ash crisis.