Europe

Home page

Europe

Volcanic ash grounds Europe flights for third day

17 April 2010 09:19 (UTC +04:00)

The plume that floated through the upper atmosphere, where it could wreak havoc on jet engines and airframes, was costing airlines hundreds of millions of dollars and has thrown travel plans into disarray on both sides of the Atlantic.
Severe disruption of European air traffic was expected on Saturday, aviation officials said. Airports in Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands remained closed and flights were set to be grounded in Hungary and parts of Romania. The U.S. military had to reroute many flights, including those evacuating the wounded from Afghanistan and Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said. Disruption from the volcanic ash eruption in Iceland was costing airlines more than $200 million a day, air industry group the International Air Transport Association said.
But unless the cloud disrupts flights for weeks, threatening factoriesâ€™ supply chains, economists do not think it will significantly slow Europeâ€™s shaky recovery from recession or affect second-quarter gross domestic product figures.
"The overall impact should be very limited even if the problem persists for a day or more ... ," IHS Global Insight chief UK and European economist Howard Archer said.