Summer bookings of cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages in Europe do not appear to be impacted by the continuing ash threat. Thomas Cook reported last week that their summer bookings had increased 5 percent over the last four week.
Massive volumes of ash, which can damage jet engines, resulted in most of northern Europe air service being grounded between April 15th to the 20th. An estimated 10 million passengers worldwide were stranded.
Europe has been dealing with Icelands volcanic ash for over a month now. There is no indication when Icelands volcano will stop belching ash across Europe. The last eruption for this particular volcano lasted a year. Continued ash eruptions threaten summer vacation plans and increase costs for struggling airlines.
There is no question that things have improved since last months massive eruption. Smaller ash plumes though, interfered with air traffic periodically last week as far away as Turkey.
Unfortunately air control authorities and geologists are in agreement that Europe must be prepared for rapid shutdowns of air services for an indefinite period of time.
The ash plume has thinned and spread out since mid April, changing by the hour, expanding into North Atlantic air routes, which in turn has forced hundreds of trans-Atlantic flights to detour daily.
The financial impact of ash clouds on airlines can be significant. Using two hours of jet fuel to reroute a plane to a different airport costs $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the size of the plane.
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