European transport ministers must act to stop further disruption of air services by volcanic ash, the Association of European Airlines (AEA) demanded
The Association said ministers at their meeting in Luxembourg today (June 25) must end the “faulty process” which caused widespread shut down in air services earlier this year.
Clouds of ash from the Mount Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland caused shutdown of services in April and May.
The Association, which represents all major European carriers, estimated the cost to the industry as €1.2bn.
It said the figure was “greatly inflated by unnecessary restrictions on flying imposed by national authorities and by passenger compensation rules which were wholly inappropriate to a Europewide curtailment of operations for an extended period.”
Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, the AEA secretary general, said: “The dispersion and dissipation of the ash was calculated by theoretical modeling.
“But since nobody knew how much atmospheric ash was being ejected by the volcano in the first place, the models were useless and the decisions taken were disastrously flawed”.
The Association has since drawn up its own “New European Approach” for dealing with ash clouds and sent it to EU transport ministers, the EC, the European Aviation Safety Agency and Eurocontrol, which governs air traffic movements over the continent.
The ministers at their meeting will be briefed by the EC on the EU response to the disruption caused by the ash.
They are also due to discuss the stage two deal of the EU-US Open Skies agreement.
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