Editor's Blog: Volcanic ash fallout
Impact of volcanic ash travel chaos
Monday, 26, Apr 2010 04:03
A quarter of British adults were impacted by the recent volcanic ash crisis, with three million unable to fly and a further seven million with family members affected, according to the latest research. So what is the fallout from the crisis and how are we likely to be impacted going forward?
Travelbite.co.uk's Natasha von Geldern takes a look:
What happened?
The disruption caused by the ash cloud emitted from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano resulted in cancellation of 100,000 global flights over the six-day period which affected 10 million passengers.
The figures released by TNS RI Travel & Tourism paint an impressive picture of the degree to which our island nation was impacted by this extraordinary phenomenon.
Eight per cent of adults were prevented from flying due to Iceland's volcanic eruption, with a further 19 per cent of people indirectly affected by family being unable to fly. More than a third (34 per cent) of people interviewed said that they or a family member were unable to return home from a holiday on a scheduled date, while 25 per cent had to cancel or postpone their holiday because they could not depart.
The airlines grounded by Iceland's volcanic ash cloud have suffered huge losses - in the region of £1.3 billion - as flight activity in European airspace was reduced to around 18 per cent of normal. They are looking for compensation and financial assistance from Europe's governments but are likely to bear the brunt of the cost.
CarTrawler has estimated that incident has cost the car rental industry ?65m, with 22 per cent of global car rental bookings being cancelled and over 95 per cent of passengers not collecting their rental cars at most European airports.
What happens next?
Some airlines are offering special sales and discounted flights to attract customers back into the air and it appears there is continued uncertainty over the extent of the impact on taking flights and overseas trips for the rest of 2010. BMI, Ryanair and easyJet are all offering discounted flights for travel in May and June.
However, some analysis is predicting airfares will increase in 2010, partly due to the volcanic ash crisis and also due to rising oil prices in the first quarter. New figures from Kelkoo, produced by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), indicate that consumers can expect to pay an average of 5.2 per cent more in 2010 for an average plane ticket, costing UK consumers an additional £1.8 billion.
Kelkoo expects airlines to increase airfares as they try to mitigate the impact on their already tight profit margins.
What do we think?
Despite all this, research by travel analysts TNS RI Travel & Tourism has revealed that 70 percent of British think Nats was right to ban flying for as long as it did. Over 60 per cent of those questioned agree that "the authorities were correct in keeping UK airspace closed for as long as they did", rising to 70 per cent of those directly affected by the ban.
In other words no one wants to be up there in a plane when volcanic ash is likely to cause failure of all engines as the ash is sucked into the engines, melted onto the blades, and generally eroding, destroying and jamming the machinery.
It also seems that, despite media speculation, the majority of travellers are unlikely to let the situation influence their future plans. The TN research found that Almost half (46 per cent) of people disagreed that the airspace closure made them less likely to fly for their summer holiday this year.
In the meantime there are many opportunities to bag a flight bargain with one of the frenzy of special offers the airlines are currently running.
Natasha von Geldern
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