Ash Cloud
Continues to Interrupt Air Travel
UK airspace
is closed until 10am UK local time on Saturday morning
Paris airports
closed until 8AM local time Saturday
Most German
airports closed indefinitely
When will you
be traveling to/from Great Britain, Scandinavia, or Europe?
Will other airports be closed and when will they re-open?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The ash cloud
that is traveling through this region is causing airport closings
across a wide-spread area, and additional cancellations and
severe service disruptions at airports outside of the affected
areas. With Mother Nature involved, the challenge is in predicting
where the cloud will go next and when. New status information
and service disruptions are happening on a rolling time frame
as everyone eyes the thick cloud.
Airline waivers give us the ability and the rules around which
we can change your reservations, but they apply only to flights
booked for specific dates of travel. Since this is changing
constantly, expansions to this time frame is likely. For travel
outside of these dates, we have to go by the airline’s
usual fare and ticketing restrictions.
If you have a flight to/from these areas, the airlines
are asking that you do not go to the airport. Contact your
Travel-On/Travel Place agent and let us assist you. We are
working closely with the airlines and keeping an eye on the
situation. We have the latest status of flights and airports,
and airline re-accommodation information. We are continually
advising our travelers as the situation changes and more
travelers are affected.
In general, here’s the situation with most airlines
- It’s considered an act of God
- They will not endorse their tickets to other carriers
- They do advise that if travelers book on another carrier
or route they will need to purchase new tickets
- When that’s done, we have to advise the original
airline and ask them to refund the unused portion of the
flights affected - even if they were non-refundable
Update on European
air traffic situation
EUROCONTROL expects around 12,000 flights to take place
today in European airspace. On a normal day, we would expect
28,000. Yesterday, 15 April, there were 20,334 flights.
Airspace is currently not available for operation of civilian
aircraft in the following countries/areas: the UK (excluding
Scotland), Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
Finland, Estonia, the north of France including all Paris
airports, northern parts of Germany, parts of Poland including
Warsaw airport and the Czech Republic. Read
more
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