Iceland's volcanic ash halts flights across Europe

[Julian2]

I'm a bit concerned here, I'm due to fly to Sydney Thursday with a British Airways flight which comes from London.

I suppose they'll have enough planes outside Europe to cope. Either that or Qantas will pick up the slack.

[Sporty]

I'm a bit concerned here, I'm due to fly to Sydney Thursday with a British Airways flight which comes from London.

I suppose they'll have enough planes outside Europe to cope. Either that or Qantas will pick up the slack.

 

 

I would suggest you contact Qantas (or other BA Partner Airline) and see if they will take your ticket now, maybe beat the rush, later.

 

I got the feeling, this problem is not gonna solve quickly.

[color:red]

"There doesn't seem to be an end in sight," Icelandic geologist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson told The Associated Press on Saturday. "The activity has been quite vigorous overnight, causing the eruption column to grow."[/color]

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36621647/ns/weather/

[Julian2]

I just ran through the BA site and it seems OK, I even went through most of the process of booking on the flight and there were seats available.

I suppose if there's no flights into Europe there must be plenty of planes out in the rest of the world.

[shygye]

... but it is not only a question of planes. There have to be enough crews to man the plane. Then there are aircraft inspections and maintenance that would be done by BA mech. at LHR.

 

Maybe use a flight tracker to check the flight.

[Guest lazyphil]

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i'll buy anyone a pint who can say this correctly.....and a few more if they can drunk!!....looks like someones cat walked on the keyboard and they decided thats what the volcanos name would be!

[Sporty]

<>

 

i'll buy anyone a pint who can say this correctly.....and a few more if they can drunk!!....looks like someones cat walked on the keyboard and they decided thats what the volcanos name would be!

 

No worries about buying me a pint, even with help, I can not say it.

 

Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl)

[USVirgin]

... but it is not only a question of planes. There have to be enough crews to man the plane. Then there are aircraft inspections and maintenance that would be done by BA mech. at LHR.

 

Maybe use a flight tracker to check the flight.

 

Yep...pretty complicated. SQ today, for example, had no inbound flight from Moscow to Houston, so they sent their Houston-Moscow bound pax to LAX where they departed on an Aeroflot flight to Moscow. I was surprised to hear that flight was operating, while so many others to the region were cancelled.

 

My best guess is that the Aeroflot flight plan was far north enough over the pole to avoid the cloud.

 

My second guess is that the Russians just don't...never mind. :content:

[simie]

I think many people are getting pissed off with this now and I have heard some people saying its a vast over reaction from the health and safety obsessed authorities? Apparently if you flew through the plume near the volcano it would certainly screw up your planes engines. But this far from the eruption it is not actually much of a threat as it has thinned out so much? KLM have put a test flight up that went through the cloud up and down with no problems at all.

Simie.

[The_Munchmaster]

KLM have put a test flight up that went through the cloud up and down with no problems at all.

Two airlines have carried out test flights to see if it is safe to fly.

 

The Netherlands' KLM said one of its planes, a Boeing 737, had reached its maximum operating altitude of about 13km in the skies over the Netherlands, and there had been no problems during the flight.

 

The aircraft and its engines were being inspected for possible damage. After the results of that technical inspection the airline hopes to get permission from the aviation authorities to start up operations again.

 

Germany's Lufthansa said it had flown several planes to Frankfurt from Munich.

 

"All airplanes have been inspected on arrival in Frankfurt but there was no damage to the cockpit windows or fuselage and no impact on the engines," a spokesman said.

 

However, both Dutch and German air space remain closed until at least 1200 and 1800 GMT respectively.

 

 

[USVirgin]

This report from RTE News made me laugh. It was at the bottom of a long list of disruptions caused by this mess:

 

Pope Benedict is expected to fly home to Rome from Malta today as planned, despite the ash cloud from Iceland.

 

Duh...he could take a seaplane, swim or walk on water from Malta to Rome!