After six days of unprecedented disruption, and following further investigations in to the dangers to aircraft and health caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, all UK airspace is opened to flights on Tuesday April 21, 2010). Lord Adonis, the UK’s Transport Minister made the announcement on Monday (April 20, 2010) evening, signalling that UK airspace restrictions were to be lifted with immediate effect.
The news will have come as a great relief to many thousands of travellers trying to complete their journeys after the skies were cleared of flights last Wednesday (April 14, 2010), in response to concerns about the volcanic ash being thrown into the air by the erupting volcano on Iceland’s south eastern region. Earlier in the day, NATS - the UK airspace authority, had allowed movements above 20,000 feet which had made flights to and from North America and Europe possible, although UK flights had remained grounded.
Clearly, with many aircraft located in the wrong places, and the thousands of travellers whose flights were cancelled to be dealt with, it will be some time before air travel is back to normal. The aftermath of this most unusual of aviation events will inevitably lead to calculations of the costs, likely to run into many hundreds of millions of pounds and no doubt many claims and counterclaims about who should pick up the bills. We will have to wait for some time to see this development, but in the meantime weary travellers and worried airline executives can start to the process of getting flights back in to air, and most welcome is this prospect.
