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Smoke billows from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokull April 16, 2010 - Source: Reuters -
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The European Union reached a deal on Tuesday to gradually lift
flight restrictions imposed because of an ash cloud from an
Icelandic volcano, under pressure from frustrated airlines losing
$250 million a day.
It will go into force from 0600 GMT on Wednesday and countries were
quick to declare their airports open to try to stem losses
described as worse than those suffered when the United States
closed its airspace after 9/11.
"From tomorrow morning we should see more planes flying," EU
Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas told reporters after EU
transport ministers held a video conference.
German Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer said: "On a national and
European level, we have decided to move step by step toward a
normalisation, within the framework of strict security
requirements."
In the Netherlands, where KLM had run test flights at normal
cruising altitude since Saturday, passenger flights were taking off
from Amsterdam's Schipol Airport on Monday night.
Airlines had declared numerous test flights problem-free, but
experts have disagreed over how to measure the ash and who should
decide it is safe to fly. A British Airways jet lost power in all
four engines after flying through an ash cloud above the Indian
Ocean in 1982.
Under the agreement, the area immediately around the volcano -
hurling more steam and less ash into the sky on Tuesday - will
remain closed.
But flights may be permitted in a wider zone with a lower
concentration of ash, subject to local safety assessments and
scientific advice, the European aviation control agency Eurocontrol
said in a statement.
"In time, it should be possible to move towards an approach in
which full discretion is given to aircraft operators," it
added.
Airports opening
France said it was reopening some airports to create air corridors
to Paris. Romania also opened its airspace.
Eurocontrol said it expected only 8,000 to 9,000 flights to operate
in Europe on Tuesday, just 30% of normal volume, stranding hundreds
of thousands of passengers and delaying cargo
deliveries.
The European Commission said it might approve compensation and ease
stringent state aid rules to cushion airline losses from the
shutdown, which has sent shares in the sector tumbling. EU
ministers are also due to discuss the economic impact.
"The scale of the economic impact (on aviation) is now greater than
9/11, when US airspace was closed for three days," International
Air Transport Association (IATA) head Giovanni Bisignani said. He
said airlines were losing US$250 million a day in
revenue.
"We must move away from this blanket closure and find ways to
flexibly open air space, step by step," he said.
British Airways, which says it has lost 15-20 million pounds
(US$22-30 million) a day in revenue, said it had asked the EU and
national governments for compensation.
Millions of people had travel disrupted or been stranded and
forced to make long, expensive attempts to reach home by road, rail
and sea, as well as missing days at work.
Canadian oil worker Mark Bokenfohr told the BBC of a five-day
quest to travel the 1,700 km home to Bergen, Norway from Italy,
where he had been on a business trip.
He queued four hours for a train ticket, changed train five times
to get to a port in Denmark, then caught a ferry to Stavanger in
Norway. From there he clubbed together with four others to hire a
car to Bergen.
"My faith in human kindness is renewed," he said. "I met many,
many displaced air passengers along the way. We were packed into
train carriages like sardines, and not everybody made it onto the
trains."
Virtual meetings
Communications provider Cisco Systems said companies were turning
to videoconferencing to connect executives stranded by the flight
ban.
"You will not get a demo room in any of the Cisco facilities,"
said Fredrik Halvorsen, head of Cisco's TelePresence Technology
Group. "We have seen a huge spike in usage."
In sport, soccer's European Cup holders Barcelona set off on a
two-day road trip of nearly 1,000 km on Monday to play Inter Milan
in a Champions League semi-final on Wednesday.
"Lucky for me, I have my laptop and I could still do some work,"
David Hampson, a humanitarian worker from Manchester, England, told
reporters while waiting for a KLM flight at Manila's international
airport. About 25,000 travellers to Europe are stranded in the
Philippines.
Britain is deploying three navy ships including an aircraft
carrier to bring its citizens home from continental Europe. The
British travel agents' association ABTA estimated 150,000 Britons
were stranded abroad. Washington said it was trying to help 40,000
Americans stuck in Britain.
Businesses dependent on fast air freight are feeling the strain of
five days of restrictions.
Kenya's flower exporters said they were already losing up to US$2
million a day. Kenya accounts for about a third of flower imports
into the European Union.
"Everything (is being) pushed back down the pipeline," said Greg
Knowler, editor of Cargonews Asia in Hong Kong. "The freight
forwarders are actually sending stuff back to the factories ... One
German forwarder that's based here reckons they have 4,000 tonnes
of backlog in Hong Kong."
While the immediate impact on Europe seemed to be abating, Porter
Airlines Inc, a small regional Canadian airline, cancelled its
first flight out of Newfoundland, as a precaution due to forecasts
that ash could spread to Canada's east coast.
Britain's Met Office, the national weather service, said the ash
cloud had reached the Canadian seaboard on Tuesday, but that the
prevailing wind was set to shift, preventing the cloud from
extending over more of Canada and the United States.
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