Airlines Losing $200 Million Daily from Disruption: IATA
Flights in England are halted until at least Saturday evening. Authorities said the situation worsened Friday.
The ash cloud resulting from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in South Iceland
continues to hamper commercial air traffic in much of Europe, with flights in Britain halted until at least 7 p.m. local time Saturday and aviation in several other countries also affected, including Belgium, Spain, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and Norway.
"Current forecasts show that the situation is worsening throughout Saturday. We are continuing to look for windows of opportunity to handle individual flights in UK controlled airspace," the main UK air traffic control agency, NATS, reported today.
The International Air Transport Association on Friday announced that its "initial and conservative estimate of the financial impact on airlines is in excess of US$200 million per day in lost revenues." And in addition to the lost revenues, the airlines will incur added costs for re-routing of aircraft, care for stranded passengers, and stranded aircraft at various ports, IATA said.