Volcanic Ash to Curtail Air Traffic Into Midd...

An aerial photo shows smoke rising from the volcano under a glacier in the Eyjafjallajokull region of Iceland on Wednesday.

Published: April 15, 2010

Multimedia

Tracking Cancellations From the Ash Cloud

Passengers were stranded at Arlanda Airport outside Stockholm, Sweden, on Thursday.

The cloud, made up of minute particles of silicate that can severely damage jet engines, left airplanes stranded on the tarmac at some of the world’s busiest airports as it spread over Britain and toward continental Europe.

The disruption extended all the way to the Asia-Pacific, where major carriers like Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Qantas, the Australian airline, were among those that canceled, delayed or diverted flights to and from Europe on Thursday and Friday.

The volcano erupted Wednesday for the second time in a month, forcing evacuations and causing flooding about 75 miles east of Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital. Matthew Watson, a specialist at Bristol University in England in the study of volcanic ash clouds, said the plume was “likely to end up over Belgium, Germany, the Lowlands — a good portion over Europe,” and was unlikely to dissipate for 24 hours or more.

Even then, any resumption of flights would not be immediate, said John Lampl, a British Airways spokesman in New York. “For several days you’ll have crews and airplanes in the wrong places,” he said. “It will take a few days to sort it out.”

British aviation officials extended the closing of British airspace at least through 1 p.m. local time on Friday, meaning that only authorized emergency flights would be permitted. About 6,000 scheduled flights use British airspace in an average day, aviation experts said.

Deborah Seymour, a spokeswoman for Britain’s National Air Traffic Service, said the closing of the country’s airspace was the most extensive in recent memory. “It’s an extremely rare occurrence,” she said.

Eurocontrol, the agency in Brussels that is responsible for coordinating air traffic management across the region, said disruptions to air traffic could last an additional 48 hours, depending on weather conditions, and could extend deeper into continental Europe.

The ash from the volcano, Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced EYE-a-fyat-la-jo-kutl), was reported to be drifting at 18,000 to 33,000 feet above the earth. At those altitudes, the cloud is directly in the way of commercial airliners but not an immediate health threat to people on the ground, the International Volcanic Health Hazard Network, based in Britain, said on its Web site.

According to the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in London, as of 1 p.m. local time, there was still “significant eruption continuing,” with the plume reaching 15,000 feet, but “occasionally” as high as 33,000 feet.

On Thursday, 5,000 to 6,000 of the 28,000 daily flights across Europe were canceled as a result of the ash plume, said Lucia Pasquini, a Eurocontrol spokeswoman.

The closing of British airspace disrupted the great majority of trans-Atlantic flights, including those on the New York-London route, the second busiest international route in the world after the Hong Kong to Taipei, Taiwan, route, according to the International Air Transport Association. Eurocontrol said roughly half of the 600 daily flights between North America and Europe would probably face cancellations or delays on Friday.

“It is a significant disruption,” said Steve Lott, a spokesman for the air transport association. “What presents more of a challenge is that we don’t know the end date.” He added, “If this closed airspace continues to grow larger, the airlines will have fewer route options.”

As the cloud made its way high across the English Channel, French aviation officials said the main Paris airports, Charles de Gaulle and Orly, would close at 11 p.m. About 20 other French airports shut down earlier. The Paris airports will remain closed until at least 10 a.m. Friday.

Major American carriers that fly to Britain were allowing their passengers to rebook flights without penalty on Thursday. Eurocontrol said areas of airspace in northern Germany and Poland closed late Thursday. Ute Otterbein, a spokeswoman for Germany’s civil aviation authority, said airports in Hamburg, Bremen and Hanover were closed until at least 8 a.m. Friday, and Berlin’s airports — Schönefeld and Tegel — were due to close at 2 a.m. Airports in Frankfurt and Munich were still open, however, and were able to accept diverted flights from other European airports, Ms. Otterbein said.

The potential economic effect of the closings is “virtually impossible” to determine at this stage, said Peter Morris, chief economist at Ascend, an aviation consultancy in London.