Ash Attack: Responses from airlines

Airline responses:

• Adria Airways: Stated it would operate approximately 30 sectors/services on 21-Apr-2010; [more]
• Aeroflot: Resumed services to Nice, Vienna and Prague on 19-Apr-2010 and is increasing capacity to Budapest, Oslo, Zagreb, Sofia, Milan, Rome, Barcelona and Madrid to repatriate stranded passengers (PRIME-TASS, 19-Apr-2010);
• Aer Lingus: Expects to incur cash costs of between EUR15-20 million following the grounding of its services on 15-Apr-2010 with almost 1,100 flights cancelled (RTTNews, 20-Apr-2010);
• Aeromexico: Resumed between Mexico City and Paris on 20-Apr-2010 (Dow Jones, 20-Apr-2010). Services to Madrid have been unaffected;
• Air Astana: Stated a "small number" of its services have been cancelled since 16-Apr-2010, due to the closure of some air space between Kazakhstan and these European Airports; [more]
• airBaltic: Planned to resume selected East- and South-bound services after 09:00 on 20-Apr-2010; [more]
• Airbus: Stated preliminary inspection of two Airbus aircraft used to fly test missions from Toulouse on 19-Apr-2010 to assess the effect of volcanic ash on aircraft over Europe showed "no irregularities," (AINOnline, 20-Apr-2010);
• Air China: Resumed some services to Europe on 20-Apr-2010, operating services from Beijing to Moscow, Stockholm and Rome (Xinhua, 21-Apr-2010). Services to London, Paris and Frankfurt remain suspended;
• Air New Zealand: Plans to operate additional services to/from London, including a special Hong Kong-London to clear backlog (Bloomberg, 20-Apr-2010). The carrier also planned to resume London-Los Angeles service on 20-Apr-2010.
• AirAsia X: Cancelled "rescue" flight to London on 20-Apr-2010 (Gulf Times, 21-Apr-2010);
• Air France: Announced plans to operate 100% of its long-haul schedule from 21-Apr-2010 (Reuters, 20-Apr-2010). Medium-haul services in northern and Northeast Europe would remain suspended.
• Air India: Stated it would deploy aircraft held at London airport to operate one flight each from London to Delhi and Toronto on 21-Apr-2010. The airline added that it may also operate one flight from Mumbai to London. The carrier, meanwhile, resumed services from Mumbai and Delhi to Chicago, New York JFK and Newark on 20-Apr-2010, with plans to resume Europe operations depending upon the availability of slots at London Heathrow. The carrier has two aircraft stranded at Heathrow and one at Frankfurt which will become operational when the respective airports start functioning and the carrier receives slot allocation. As of 20-Apr-2010, there were about 3,000 Europe bound passengers stranded in India who have bookings with Air India; [more - US] [more - Europe]
• Air Malta: Plans to resume scheduled flights to Catania, Milan, Reggio, Rome, Tripoli, Vienna and Zurich on 21-Apr-2010 (Times of Malta, 20-Apr-2010);
• Air New Zealand: Stated the disruptions are costing NZD500,000 (USD355,000) per day (Reuters/Radio New Zealand, 20-Apr-2010). Provisionally plans to operate in the next 24 hours, as announced on 21-Apr-2010, a total of seven services to/from London, which will begin to clear the backlog of passengers. Pending no further closure of airspace, normal scheduled services will recommence from 22-Apr-2010, with Air New Zealand continuing to look for additional opportunities to add capacity between London and Auckland. Priority for booking passengers on available seats is being undertaken in the order of those who were stranded in Hong Kong and Los Angeles enroute to London, followed by customers with existing bookings on scheduled services and then passengers in a chronological order from their original point of delay. The carrier normally operates twice daily service to London, but has operated service to the UK from London and Los Angeles since last Thursday; [more]
  
• Air Zimbabwe: Stated it has lost nearly USD1 million over the past five days, with the carrier cancelling three services to London and approximately 800 passenger being stranded due to the flight disruptions (The Herald, 20-Apr-2010);
• Alitalia: Confirmed services in Northern Italy will resume services at 8am local time on 20-Apr-2010 (Bloomberg, 20-Apr-2010);
• All Nippon Airlines: Cancelled all flights to London, Frankfurt and Paris on 20-Apr-2010 (Bloomberg, 20-Apr-2010). Plans to operate six flights from Tokyo to Frankfurt, Paris and London on 21-Apr-2010 (Dow Jones, 21-Apr-2010);
• Arkia: Resumed services to Paris, Bordeaux and Munich on 20-Apr-2010 (Ha'aretz, 20-Apr-2010);
• Asiana Airlines: Resumed freight services to Europe on 20-Apr-2010;
• BMI: plans to resume flights from 12pm local time on 21-Apr-2010 (Travelmole, 20-Apr-2010);
• British Airways: CEO, Willie Walsh, welcomed the UK Government's decision to reopen UK airspace and stated he did not believe it was necessary to impose the blanket ban across the UK airspace (Bloomberg/eTravel.org, 20-Apr-2010). The carrier stated it will do "all we can" as many of the 28 longhaul aircraft as possible from London Heathrow and Gatwick airports. The carrier also stated it could seek government compensation for the financial impact of the airspace closures (The Independent, 20-Apr-2010). Mr Walsh commented, "there is a precedent for this to happen as compensation was paid after the closure of US airspace following the terrorist events of 9/11, and clearly the impact of the current situation is more considerable. We welcome the EU's initiative to address the economic consequences of the airspace closure on the air travel industry and the wider European economy. We are also in touch with the UK Government, which has set up a group to work on this issue as it recognises the impact on airlines and the contribution that aviation makes to the British economy". The carrier cancelled all short-haul flights on 20-Apr-2010 (Travelmole, 20-Apr-2010);
• Cathay Pacific: Operated increased capacity to Rome through deployment of larger aircraft (Bloomberg, 20-Apr-2010). The carrier operated seven flights from Hong Kong to Europe on 20-Apr-2010 - three to Paris, two to Frankfurt, one to Munich and one to Amsterdam (The Standard, 21-Apr-2010). Cathay Pacific adding it is making preparations to resume regular services to Europe, but the timing depends on the reopening of airports and available landing slots (Dow Jones, 21-Apr-2010). Cathay reports 15,600 passengers have been affected by the flight cancellations. The carrier cancelled 70 flights on 20-Apr-2010;
• China Airlines: All services to/from Europe except Rome will be cancelled on 20-Apr-2010 and 21-Apr-2010. The carrier has resumed the operation of Taipei- Delhi-Rome-Delhi-Rome service on 2-Apr-2010. The carrier has two grounded aircraft in Frankfurt. The carrier also plans to employ additional widebody services to convey stranded passengers when possible; [more]
• China Eastern Airlines: Canceled all flights Europe on 20-Apr-2010, including London, Paris, Frankfurt and Moscow (Shanghai Daily, 21-Apr-2010);
• China Southern Airlines: Cancelled all flights from Guangzhou to Amsterdam and Paris up to 23-Apr-2010, expects to resume regular service to Europe on 24-Apr-2010 (Shanghai Daily, 21-Apr-2010);
• Delta Air Lines: Cancelled approximately 400 trans-Atlantic flights since the closures commenced, resulting in a net loss of USD20 million (MarketWatch, 20-Apr-2010). The carrier expects to resume a normal schedule by the weekend;
• easyJet: Stated volcanic eruption caused the carrier to lose GBP40 million in lost business with a daily profit impact of GBP5 million (AFP, 19-Apr-2010). Reports all flights to/from Northern Europe, including the UK were cancelled up to 5pm local time on 20-Apr-2010 (Travelmole, 20-Apr-2010). The carrier plans to resume all UK and Continental Europe services on 21-Apr-2010 (etravel, 20-Apr-2010);
• El Al Israel Airlines: Resuming services from Ben-Gurion International Airport to Paris, Vienna, Budapest and Zurich on 20-Apr-2010, having restored service to Moscow, Kiev and Madrid on 19-Apr-2010 (Ha'aretz, 20-Apr-2010);
• Emirates: Stated it would not raise airfares to offset losses, with CEO, Tim Clark, stating "we will not be looking to raise airfares once the whole ash cloud crisis is over. That is not the policy. We will maintain our prices the best we can. We are not here to take advantage of the situation" (Associated Press/Emirates Business/AFP, 21-Apr-2010). The carrier stated it has suffered "income depletion" of approximately USD65 million from the cancellations, with an additional USD5-6 million spent in accommodating stranded passengers (overall 35,000 passenger have been stranded, with approximately 3,800 passengers still in Dubai). In addition to the 250 cancelled passenger flights, 2,000 tonnes of cargo have also been disrupted. Mr Clark continued, "there is no question about Emirates having a financial difficulty. We have a very strong balance sheet, we have a large amount of cash. We can tough this out, and we will do so. We have no choice. So that doesn't concern me in the slightest. We will just have to manage". He added that this crisis is also not likely to have a major impact on Emirates' earnings. The carrier, yesterday, diverted some of its Germany-bound flights to Vienna and Zurich, and operated an A380 to Paris. The carrier has stated it would not request the government for help or to be compensated for the disruptions, but warned that the situation could but many carriers in Europe in serious trouble, commenting, "you will see an implosion in the civil aviation industry, particularly in Europe. Unless the states in Europe come up and bail those companies out, there won't be many carriers left on that bases. You simply can't afford to shut down the size of Europe [for that long with complaints]";
• Emirates SkyCargo: Stated it is suffering revenue losses of up to USD2 million per day with around 4,000 tonnes of Europe-bound cargo being delayed (Business 24/7, 21-Apr-2010). The carrier is also unable to accept cargo for shipment due to the lack of warehousing capacity. The carrier is currently not accepting any perishables or time-sensitive shipments. The carrier normally transports more than 800 tonnes of cargo per day. Within Europe, cargo was being transported by road;
• Etihad: Stated that, as of 20-Apr-2010, flight cancellations remain in place to destinations in Europe and the UK. The carrier added that once restriction are lifted, its priority will be to book passengers currently in transit; [more]
• European airlines: Moody's stated ratings of European airlines remain unaffected by the volcano at this time, but added that this may be reassess if delays and closures are protracted (Reuters, 20-Apr-2010);
• EVA Air: Submitted an application to resume services from Taipei to Vienna (Huaxia.com, 20-Apr-2010);
• FedEx: Resumed operations at Paris Airport, where it operates a regional hub, on 20-Apr-2010 after suspending services on 14-Apr-2010 (Memphis Business Journal, 20-Apr-2010). The carrier is operating from Paris to Memphis and has seven flights leaving the US bound for France. The carrier stated it would prioritise freight on a "first in/first out" basis (Sacramento Business Journal, 20-Apr-2010);
• Finnair: Cancelled all flights on 20-Apr-2010 and will likely cancel all flights on 21-Apr-2010. Finland's airspace is closed to all flights above 900 metres on Tuesday after briefly re-opening on Monday. It is to remain closed until at least 6 pm Tuesday;
• Flybe: Will operate as many services as possible from 13:00 on 21-Apr-2010, although all services prior to this time have been cancelled. 18 services are currently scheduled to be operated on 21-Apr-2010, although approximately 28 services have been cancelled; [more]
• Gulf Air: Confirmed plans to today services from Bahrain to London, Paris, Frankfurt on 20-Apr-2010 (TradeArabia News Service, 21-Apr-2010). Full operations will resume on 21-Apr-2010, subject to "the full and permanent opening of the airspace". More than 260 passengers were being accommodated in hotels in Bahrain at the airline's expense;
• Grupo SATA: Cancelled 17 services between 15-Apr-2010 and 19-Apr-2010. Seven flights to and from the Azores have been cancelled, namely Ponta Delgada/Copenhagen/Ponta Delgada, Ponta Delgada/Manchester/London/Ponta Delgada and Ponta Delgada/Frankfurt/Ponta Delgada. Ten flights to and from Madeira have been cancelled, namely Funchal/Arlanda/Funchal, Funchal/Charles de Gaulle/Funchal, Funchal/Dublin/Funchal, Funchal/Zurich/Funchal and Funchal/Copenhagen/Funchal; [more]
• Hainan Airlines: Resumed all services to Europe, including Beijing-Brussels (normal services on 22-Apr-2010, with one additional service each on 21-Apr-2010 and 22-Apr-2010), Beijing-Budapest (on 21-Apr-2010), Beijing-Berlin (on 21-Apr-2010) and Beijing-Moscow (on 21-Apr-2010, replacing A330 with A340 aircraft);
• Iberia/Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum: Planned to operate evening services from Madrid to Milan, Venice, Bologna, Turin and Genoa on 20-Apr-2010. The carrier also planned to operate seven services to Paris on 20-Apr-2010, carrying approximately 1,400 passengers. The carriers cancelled 69 services on 20-Apr-2010 (for a total of 822 from 17-Apr-2010). Germany, Copenhagen, the United Kingdom and Ireland are still affected by flight restrictions, while domestic and long haul services are operating normally; [more]
• India: Domestic carrier's estimate a loss of almost USD18.5 million in passenger revenue over the past few days (Travel Biz Monitor, 20-Apr-2010s);
• IRI Airlines (HOMA): The Iranian carrier is resuming services to London on 22-Apr-2010 (IRNA, 20-Apr-2010);
• Japan Airlines: Plans to resume all scheduled services between Tokyo Narita and Europe (London, Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and Milan) on 21-Apr-2010, as per its original flight schedule, as airspace and airports in those regions begin to reopen. JAL will also be operating two extra flights, one each from Milan and Rome to Tokyo. Over the past two days of restricted air traffic, JAL operated five flights between Japan and Europe and carried a total of 1,340 passengers. 55 JAL flights on routes between Japan and cities of London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Milan, Rome and Moscow were cancelled between 15-Apr-2010 and 20-Apr-2010, affecting close to 14,000 passengers; [more]
• Jat Airways: To resume services to Vienna, Podgorica, Istanbul and Skopje on 20-Apr-2010 with services to Copenhagen, Stuttgart and Paris to remain cancelled (Beta, 20-Apr-2010);
• Jet Airways: Resumed US and Canada flights via Athens, with four flights being operated daily to these destinations to clear up the stranded passengers. Efforts are on to carry Europe bound passengers to Athens and there on by road to other destinations in Europe. As of 20-Apr-2010, there were about 6000 Europe bound passengers stranded in India who have booked with Jet Airways; [more]
• Kenya Airways: Intends to resume services between Nairobi and London Heathrow on 21-Apr-2010; [more]
• Korean Air: Resumed freight services to Europe on 21-Apr-2010;
• KLM: Stated that from 08:00 20-Apr-2010, more than 30 intercontinental flights arrived at Schiphol. KLM is also operating all intercontinental flights from Schiphol to all but six destinations. Services to Mexico City, Lima, Osaka, Manilla, Montreal and Entebbe have been cancelled. On 20-Apr-2010, more than half of all European KLM flights were expected to be operated and KLM is expecting this to increase in the days ahead. The aim is to operate according to the flight schedule as soon as possible. KLM is also making use of the networks of its SkyTeam partners; [more]
• LOT Polish Airlines: Reportedly asked the Polish Government for financial aid after losing EUR5 million per day due to the grounding of its fleet (thenews.pl, 20-Apr-2010);
• Lufthansa: Denies it applied for state financial help despite reports a number of European carrier's applied for financial help (Dow Jones, 20-Apr-2010). The carrier also reduced its jet fuel purchases in light of the continuing restrictions in air traffic (Dow Jones, 20-Apr-2010). The carrier stated the financial impact of the cancellations is small. The carrier added that it planned to operate 200 flights from Frankfurt on 20-Apr-2010, including most of scheduled long-haul flights, 15% less than it normal schedule (AFP, 20-Apr-2010). Lufthansa would make use of permission to fly visually rather than relying on instruments. The carrier plans to resume all long-haul flights on 21-Apr-2010 (Dow Jones, 20-Apr-2010). Lufthansa resumed Delhi-Munich service on 20-Apr-2010, with all other European services from Delhi and Mumbai to resume on 21-Apr-2010 (Press Trust of India, 20-Apr-2010);
• Malaysia Airlines: Cancelled 46 flights involving 14,000 passengers system-wide from 15-20-Apr-2010. Plans to resume scheduled services from Kuala Lumpur to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt (five services) on 21-Apr-2010, with five services to these destinations also planned for 22-Apr-2010. Scheduled flights to Rome are not affected and will operate as normal. CFO, Mohd Azha Abdul Jalil, stated the carrier is considering plans of "mounting additional flights and/or bigger aircraft" or serving other European airports that are open (The Star Online, 20-Apr-2010). Mr Jalil added it is "too early to estimate what the revenue loss is at this moment"; [more]
• Malev: Planning to resume most scheduled operations on 20-Apr-2010 and planning relief flights to Tel Aviv and Moscow; [more]
• Monarch: Flights suspended until at least 13:00 on 21-Apr-2010. Managing Director, Time Jeans, claimed the airline industry does not have enough effective contingency plans in place to deal with problems such the volcanic eruption, commenting, "there's not a great deal more that could have been done but we need to make better contingency plans. We as an industry, and I would include ourselves in this, have a poor record of this sort of contingency planning although who could have predicted last Wednesday night when this happened that we would have a total lock down on British airspace for a week? Nobody could have predicted that and that's extremely difficult to plan against. At the moment airlines are writing a blank cheque for all of this and that is going to cause a day of reckoning. UK airlines on the whole are very well funded and can survive this particular storm" (Travel Weekly, 20-Apr-2010);; [more]
• Montenegro Airlines: Losses have reached approximately EUR1 million, with the carrier seeking help from the Montenegro Airlines (FOCUS, 20-Apr-2010);
• Pakistan International Airlines: Reports USD30 million loss per day from cancelled flights operations to Europe and the USA, with 75 cancelled since 15-Apr-2010 (APP, 20-Apr-2010);
• Qantas: Stated it would resume services between Europe and Australia and Asia and Europe on 21-Apr-2010, with scheduled service between Australia and Europe via Asia to recommence on 22-Apr-2010. The carrier is working on providing supplementary services to help clear the backlog, but added that it estimates it will take approximately two to three weeks to clear the current backlog. The carrier has stated it would not take any new bookings for flights to Europe until mid-May-2010 as it tries to clear a backlog of stranded passengers (Herald Sun, 21-Apr-2010). Approximately 15,000 customers have been affected by the delays, costing it AUD1.5 million in profit per tax per day. The carrier cancelled flights from Singapore to London Heathrow and Frankfurt on 21-Apr-2010 and flights from Bangkok and Hong to London Heathrow and Frankfurt on 22-Apr-2010 (Bloomberg, 20-Apr-2010); [more]
• Qatar Airways: Has cancelled more than 135 services since last Thursday, and described the situation as "very unfortunate" for the entire industry. Operated service to the UK and France on 20-Apr-2010 as part of efforts to repatriate passengers stranded in Doha back to both countries. Two wide-body aircraft originally scheduled to operate flights from Doha to London Heathrow and Manchester respectively, operated to Edinburgh. Another aircraft, originally scheduled for Paris, was re-routed to Lyon. All three flights carried a full load of transit and ex-Doha departing passengers to the UK and France. The Doha-based carrier has made arrangements to provide these passengers with road or rail transport from Edinburgh to either Manchester or London, and from Lyon to Paris. The aircraft will remain positioned in Edinburgh and Lyon to operate Qatar Airways' passengers stranded in the UK and France back to Doha and onwards to other cities in the airline's network. Arrangements are also being made to provide surface transport for returning passengers from London, Manchester and Paris via Edinburgh and Lyon; Meanwhile, a planned test flight to Heathrow Airport was delayed while the carrier waits on approval from the UK's Civil Aviation Authority; [more]
• Royal Air Maroc: Stated it would resume limited services, with nine of 21 services operating on 20-Apr-2010 (Agence Maghreb Arabe Press, 20-Apr-2010);
• Ryanair: Expects net profit for the year ending 31-Mar-2011 to be impacted by approximately EUR6 million per day over the seven days of disruption following the volcano eruption with the overall disruption to cost EUR42 million in FY2011 providing the carrier resumes services by 23-Apr-2010 (Dow Jones, 20-Apr-2010). Cancelled all services between UK and Continental Europe until 13:00 on 22-Apr-2010 and all services between UK and Ireland until 13:00 on 23-Apr-2010, when it plans to resume services. Subsequently stated (20-Apr-2010) it would operate additional services on 21-Apr-2010 and 22-Apr-2010 from Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Tenerife to Madrid to allow all passengers who were disrupted on the Islands by the recent volcanic ash emissions to get to Mainland Europe to allow them to make their return journeys via road, rail or ferry (onward travel from Madrid will be at each passenger's own expense). Southbound flights from Spain, Southern Italy, Malta and Morocco continue as normal;[more - Services to Madrid] [more - Cancellations]
• SAS: Planned to operate 40 flights to destinations in Scandinavia on 20-Apr-2010 (Dow Jones, 20-Apr-2010). The airline is operating most of its services to/from the US and Asia, as well as the majority of Norwegian domestic flights. SAS stated on 19-Apr-2010 that disruptions are costing the airline up to USD12.5 million per day in lost revenue and expenses. Claims 7,500 passengers affected by airspace restrictions with 30 services to and from Cape Town, Johannesburg, London, Frankfurt and Munich cancelled (allafrica.com, 19-Apr-2010);
• Singapore Airlines: Stated it has been losing at least SGD4 million (USD2.9 million) per day since Thursday, with the estimated being based on no new bookings to affected destinations in Europe and accommodation costs for stranded passengers (Dow Jones, 19-Apr-2010). The carrier operates 24 daily services to Europe, with more than 20 being cancelled throughout the period, with approximately 25% of total revenues from its European operations. The carrier planned to reinstate two services (to Paris and Barcelona bypassing Milan) on 20-Apr-2010 and five services on 21-Apr-2010 (to Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and Zurich). All other services remain cancelled. he carrier announced 20 flights cancellations to Europe on 22-Apr-2010 (Dow Jones, 20-Apr-2010); [more]
• South African Airways: Cancelled services to London, Frankfurt and Munich on 20-Apr-2010 (AFP, 20-Apr-2010);
• TAM: Stated it would launch extar services once operations are resumed, adding that if airports reopened on 20-Apr-2010, it estimates its operations would be settled in less than a week. As of 19-Apr-2010, the carrier had cancelled 51 services, representing approximately 2% of international service estimated for the month. The carrier's Madrid services have been operated as normal; [more]
• Thai Airways: Planned to resume daily Bangkok-Zurich service on 20-Apr-2010, with the carrier also resuming regular Bangkok-Rome and Bangkok-Madrid services and arranging additional services on the route. Also seeking approval to operate to Toulouse (Bloomberg, 20-Apr-2010). Cancelled 70 flights on 20-Apr-2010. The carrier plans to resume services from Bangkok to Stockholm and Oslo soon (Dow Jones, 21-Apr-2010); [more]
• Thomson Airways: Cancelled all outbound flights from the UK up to 21-Apr-2010 (Travelmole, 20-Apr-2010);
• Thomas Cook: Three Thomas Cook Airlines rescue flights departed from Glasgow to pick up passengers from Cancun (Mexico), Heraklion (Crete) and Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt), with on flight operating from Newcastle to Lanzarote on 20-Apr-2010. Providing airspace remains open, the carrier plans to continue to operate these services, along with ten other Thomas Cook Airlines flights from short and mid-haul destinations, repatriating around 2,500 passengers. Currently the travel company has more than 50,000 holidaymakers stranded overseas, with 2,500 people return to-date; [more]
• Tranasero: Stated it lost up to RUB20 million (EUR512,000) between 15/19-Apr-2010 in terms of lost revenues, additional landings on Canada and Dominican Republic services and costs for caring for passengers. Resumed service to Vienna and Frankfurt on 19-Apr-2010 (PRIME-TASS, 19-Apr-2010);
• Tunisair: Commenced service on 20-Apr-2010, transporting 2,977 passenger, with the carrier planning to schedule 14 charter flights, pending agreements and feasibility. The carrier is attempting to fairly spread capacity and flights across markets (ie to Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Austria and Switzerland); [more]
• Turkish Airlines: Cancelled 100 international flights on 20-Apr-2010, including 40 from Istanbul Ataturk Airport. Services did operate to destinations in southern and eastern Europe, such as Athens, Barcelona, Madrid, Belgrade, Budapest, Bucharest, Tirana, Vienna, Sofia, Odessa, Moscow, St.Petersburg, Lyon and Paris;
• Vietnam Airlines: Operated service to Moscow and Paris on 20-Apr-2010, from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh; [more]
• Wizz Air: Cancelled all services for 20-Apr-2010, but provided no information on future services. [more]