THAI passengers stuck in ash limbo
Bangkok Post: 18 Apr 2010
Eruption strands 11,000
THAI TRAVELLERS LEFT WAITINGMore than 11,000 Thai Airways International (THAI) passengers have been stranded worldwide due to the volcanic eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland which forced the closure of airspace in Scandinavia and Northern Europe.
THAI is among a number of airlines which cancelled their flights to Europe.
Volcanic ash limits visibility and is capable of knocking out jet engines.
Several thousand passengers were stranded in Asia for a second day yesterday as flights were grounded because of a massive cloud of ash from the volcano that paralysed European airports.
THAI President Piyasvasti Amranand said yesterday there were 11,097 stranded THAI passengers due to cancellations.
There have been 31 inbound and outbound THAI flights in Europe cancelled since Friday from Bangkok to London, Oslo, Copenhagen, Paris, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Zurich, and Munich. Eurocontrol, the air traffic control agency of Europe, has yet to lift its no-fly order in several countries, which is to be updated every six hours.
Mr Piyasvasti said THAI's emergency situation team will meet today to formulate a plan for stranded passengers. Passengers can contact the THAI call centre around the clock for more details at 02-356-1111.
At least 45 flights between Europe and Asia were cancelled yesterday, with the number expected to rise to surpass the previous day's 60 cancellations.
It is unknown when Europe's skies, one of aviation's most congested areas, will be safe again.
It could be more than a week before the chaos is sorted out, warned David Epstein, corporate affairs manager for Qantas, who added its five flights that normally travel to Europe via Asian cities were flying yesterday, but only as far as the Asian stops.
"It's best to put safety before schedule, and where there's any question of volcanic ash being in the air we would prefer to take the safe approach rather than risk it to get flights in," Mr Epstein said in Melbourne.
At Beijing airport, most of the flights to Europe leaving yesterday were called off, including ones to London, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt and Copenhagen.
In Hong Kong, at least one airline, Cathay Pacific, has cancelled some Europe-bound flights for today.
A dozen passengers from South Korea's Incheon International Airport were grounded yesterday.
The Eyjafjallajokull eruption sent ash several kilometres into the air, with winds pushing the plume south and east across Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and into the heart of Europe.
About 2,000 Qantas customers are stuck in Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong. However, they are being offered flights to non-European destinations or back to Australia, Mr Epstein said. Around 100 international customers are being put up in hotels in Australia.
Air New Zealand flights to London also remained cancelled for a second day, with an estimated 2,000 passengers waiting to leave the country.
Taiwan's China Airlines yesterday cancelled a flight to Amsterdam, and the island's EVA Airways also cancelled flights to London and Amsterdam. Travel agents said more than 2,000 Taiwanese passengers were stranded in European airports because of the disruptions.
Hundreds of passengers in the Philippines - many heading to Europe by way of the Middle East - have not been allowed to board their flights, said Octavio Lina, operations manager of Manila's international airport. Japanese carriers had to cancel at least four more flights yesterday after grounding 15 flights with nearly 4,000 passengers on Friday.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/36219/eruption-strands-11000------------------Flights likely to be grounded another 4-5 daysREYKJAVIK - Winds blowing a massive volcanic ash cloud from Iceland to Europe will continue in the same direction for at least two days and could go on until the middle of next week, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said Saturday.
"For the winds of high altitude, we expect more or less the same. The ash will continue to be directed towards Britain and Scandinavia," Teitur Arason, a meteorologist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, told AFP.
"That's the general situation for the coming days, ... more or less for the next two days or maybe the next four or five days," he said.
French meteorologists agreed.
"The mass of airborne dust will approach on Saturday evening the limits of the Mediterranean and Pyrenees zones," in southern and southwestern France, Meteo France engineer Michel Daloz told AFP.
"On Saturday, at around 9:30 a.m. (0730 GMT), this dust in France stretched along an axis from Bordeaux (in the southwest on the Atlantic coast) to Lyon (in the centre-east)," he said.
With the volcano in Iceland still erupting, the north of France will not be totally spared by the expansion of the dust cloud, Daloz added.
With low pressure developing in southern Spain and Portugal, he said, there is a danger of southerly winds running up against the northerly flow -- with the result that the ash cloud will linger longer, he said.
"Nothing is yet certain and we will have a clearer idea in the afternoon," he said.
The ash is concentrated at a height of 6,000 metres (20,000 feet) -- precisely the altitude through which commercial airliners fly -- rising at points to as high as 11,000 metres, Dalloz said.
Separately, the Eurpean air traffic coordinating agency Eurocontrol warned Saturday that the impact of the spreading ash cloud would go into Sunday morning European time.
"Forecasts suggest that the cloud of volcanic ash will persist and that the impact will continue for at least the next 24 hours," it said in a statement from its Brussels headquarters, referring to Sunday at around 0830 GMT.
- AFP
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