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A plume of volcanic ash rises six to 11 kilometres into the atmosphere, from a crater under about 200 metres of ice at the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland - Source: Reuters -
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Europe officials are hoping to significantly increase flights to
half the normal number on Tuesday, and the EU discussing how to
tackle the 5-day-old air travel crisis caused by volcanic
ash.
Pressure was building on authorities for a solution because the
closure of most of Europe's airspace has cost the airline industry
hundreds of millions of dollars, millions of passengers have been
stranded, and importers and exporters have been hurt.
The crisis has had a knock on effect across the world and its
impact on everyday life in Europe has deepened. In Britain,
companies reported that staff had been unable to get back from
Easter holidays abroad and hospitals said they were cancelling some
operations because surgeons were stuck far away from home.
A senior EU official said the current situation was not
sustainable, as airlines called for a review of no-fly decrees
after conducting test flights at the weekend without any apparent
problems from the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano.
"We cannot wait until the ash flows just disappear," said Transport
Commissioner Siim Kallas, adding that he hoped 50% of European
airspace would be risk-free on Tuesday.
Spain's European Union affairs minister Diego Lopez Garrido told
reporters after a meeting at European aviation control agency
Eurocontrol: "The forecast is that there will be half of flights
possibly operating (on Monday)."
Iceland said tremors from the volcano had grown more intense but
that the column of ash rising from it had eased back to 4-5 km from
as high as 11 km when it began erupting on Wednesday from below the
Eyjafjallajokull glacier.
Italy and Austria said they would reopen affected airports on
Tuesday.
Only 5,000 flights took place in European airspace on Sunday,
compared with 24,000 normally, Eurocontrol said. It said 63,000
flights had been cancelled since Friday.
EU transport ministers will discuss the crisis in a video
conference on Monday that Spain has called in its capacity as the
27-nation bloc's president.
"We can examine the results of the test flights and look and see
whether there is any updating of the regulatory structure which
might make it possible for flights to take place," British
Transport Minister Andrew Adonis told BBC television.
Dutch state broadcaster NOS quoted Transport Minister Camiel
Eurlings as saying Europe's response to the ash cloud had been too
severe, and that the United States did not completely close its
airspace in response to similar eruptions.
The Dutch airline KLM, which has flown several test flights, said
most European airspace was safe despite the plume of ash, and
dispatched two commercial freight flights to Asia on Sunday.
Volcanic ash is abrasive and can strip off aerodynamic surfaces and
paralyse an aircraft engine. Aircraft electronics and windshields
can also be damaged.
Rule book
Senior Eurocontrol official Brian Flynn said the International
Civil Aviation Organisation published rules that needed to be
adhered to worldwide, and guidelines to interpret at continental
level.
"One could say that the guidelines are interpreted slightly more
rigorously in Europe than in the United States, when it comes to
responsibilities of air traffic control agencies and pilots," he
told Reuters.
The clampdown poses a growing problem for airlines, estimated to be
losing $282 million a day, and for the millions of travellers
stranded worldwide.
Weather experts said wind patterns meant the ash plume was not
likely to move far until later in the week.
For some businesses dependent on fast air freight, the impact has
been immediate.
Kenya's flower exporters said they were already losing up to $2.82
million a day. Kenya accounts for about a third of flower imports
into the European Union.
The air travel disruption is the worst since the September 11
attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, when US airspace was
closed for three days.
US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and
others cancelled trips to Poland for the funeral of President Lech
Kaczynski on Sunday.
Britain said it was considering using the navy and requisitioning
merchant ships to ferry home citizens stranded abroad. The response
to the crisis is threatening to become an issue in the campaign for
Britain's May 6 election.
The British travel agents' association Abta was quoted by the BBC
as saying it had made a rough estimate that about 150,000 Britons
were stranded abroad.
"At no time in living memory has British airspace been shut down
and affected this many people," an Abta spokeswoman told the
BBC.
For travellers, businesses and financial markets, the biggest
problem is the sheer unpredictability of the situation.
Economists say they stand by their predictions for European growth,
hoping normal air travel can resume this week.
But if European airspace were closed for months, one economist
estimated lost travel and tourism revenue alone could knock 1-2
percentage points off regional growth. European growth had been
predicted at 1-1.5% for 2010.
"That would mean a lot of European countries wouldn't get any
growth this year," said Vanessa Rossi, senior economic fellow at
Chatham House.
"It would literally stifle the recovery. But the problem is it is
incredibly hard to predict what will happen. Even the geologists
can't tell us." Disruption spread to Asia, where dozens of
Europe-bound flights were cancelled and hotels from Beijing to
Singapore strained to accommodate stranded passengers.
Many US airline flights to and from Europe have been
cancelled.
Russian airports remained open, routing planes to North America
over the North Pole to avoid the ash cloud.
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