Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, Eyjafjallajokull

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Sabena320
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by Sabena320 »

And Jet Airways is rerouting some flights that normally operate through Brussels hub via Athens Airport:

9W 228 Mumbai - Athens April 18, 2010 0220 0750
9W 228 Athens - Newark April 18, 2010 0850 1250
9W 230 Delhi - Athens April 18, 2010 0235 0835
9W 228 Athens - Toronto April 18, 2010 0935 1355
9W 227 Newark - Athens April 17, 2010 1835 1220
9W 227 Athens - Mumbai April 17, 2010 1320 2340
9W 229 Toronto - Athens April 17, 2010 1835 1240
9W 229 Athens - Delhi April 17, 2010 1340 0030

TUB023

Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by TUB023 »

who will pay for all of this ... that's the man Q :)

Kapitein
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by Kapitein »

Airspace closed until Sundaymorning 0800 LT

LJ
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by LJ »

TUB023 wrote:who will pay for all of this ... that's the man Q :)
The airlines (lost revenue and leases on aircraft) and the passenger who has to pay for the additional nights at the hotel or other transport (though some airlines seem to pay this). Though the Dutch union is already asking the government to help..and that when KL says they loose "just" EUR 5-10 million a day.

BTW would be a great opportunity to schedule some minor tech checks for your fleet.

airazurxtror
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by airazurxtror »

According to the great Scot, Brussels Airlines is requesting help from the Government :
In French :
http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/belgique ... 764659.php

Ducatibiker
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by Ducatibiker »

The way Brussels Airlines is dealing with this problem shows once again their inability to handle customers properly. I received a SMS telling me that the flight was cancelled - no answer from their call center, no help at all. Had to rent a car to get BRU...once I got here, the desk of Brussels Airlines was just closed ! Once again it shows that they don't care about passengers !

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cathay belgium
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by cathay belgium »

Hi,

I can confirm :
Ducatibiker wrote:The way Brussels Airlines is dealing with this problem shows once again their inability to handle customers properly. I received a SMS telling me that the flight was cancelled - no answer from their call center, no help at all.
Just call the booking service by yourself at 070-00 dialing code,so we can pay a little extra
to get rebooked. ( flight on monday to CTA )
Maybe the hotels,phone-business,carrentals can pay a bit to SN for their lost revenue ;) !

Seems that FR made the right decision to cancel their flights way in front of all others ! :mrgreen:
Once again FR was a trendsetter .. :mrgreen:

CX-B
New types flown 2024 : DO228, A338 , PC6

C-46commando
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by C-46commando »

Ducatibiker wrote:The way Brussels Airlines is dealing with this problem shows once again their inability to handle customers properly. I received a SMS telling me that the flight was cancelled - no answer from their call center, no help at all. Had to rent a car to get BRU...once I got here, the desk of Brussels Airlines was just closed ! Once again it shows that they don't care about passengers !
And this shows you believe you are the only costumer in the world who needs help. I can tell you that right now many people from many airlines are working very hard at finding solutions.

schouppe
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by schouppe »

know that all airlines are working very hard to find a solution for all stranded passengers. It is rather difficult to find a solution for all of them as they don't know when airspaces will be open again. It seems no improvement can be expected before 20/04/2010.


BRU airport will remain closed already till 1200LT(18/04/2010). Please check following link, you can see yourself wath other airspaces have decided. If you make a conclusion, you know as well as me that Belgian airspace will remain closed on sunday.


https://www.cfmu.eurocontrol.int/PUBPOR ... index.html


BRU airport is scary and very quiet, few aircrafts are parked, a delta B764, a Biman Bangladesh, Adria Airways, some B.air aircrafts and that's it. Never seen such a situation. Even all shops are closed. For the third day on a row we called employees to remain at home.

Please stop blaming Airlines if they are not able to help you out. It's just a big chaos, certainly with end of the eastern holiday.

Someone who hopes wind will blow not anymore out of the northeast

NCB

Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by NCB »

The way Brussels Airlines is dealing with this problem shows once again their inability to handle customers properly. I received a SMS telling me that the flight was cancelled - no answer from their call center, no help at all. Had to rent a car to get BRU...once I got here, the desk of Brussels Airlines was just closed ! Once again it shows that they don't care about passengers !
They sould have given you a drink, a limousine ride to a 5 star hotel and some female company to keep you entertained while you wait for flights to start again.

The understaffed call center is working overtime and you can't train a pilot, stewardess or check-in agent to work at the call center in one day, nor is there anyone available to train someone else.
The situation is beyond any airline's reach, so be patient and try to make something enjoyable out of your situation.

IMO the Belgian Transport Ministry should use the opportunity to survey the air using military choppers (which are fitted with dust filters) instead of relying on information provided by the London Met Office for updates to continuously extend cover-their-*ss airspace closure deadlines when we all know from the Norwegian pictures that there isn't going to be any flying on the next few days by their criteria.

KLM safely completed a test-flight with a B737 at 41000ft an hour ago and are checking the aircraft right now..
Last edited by NCB on 17 Apr 2010, 22:03, edited 2 times in total.

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luchtzak
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by luchtzak »

I am supposed to leave on holiday next monday with the kids, Jetairfly to Alicante. I think I will go for the refund and enjoy holiday in Belgium. But will decide tomorrow evening.

Good luck to all the passengers, crew and staff during this very exceptional and difficult period !

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BrightCedars
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by BrightCedars »

To relay my experience since we are affected by this event, we each received an SMS from Lufthansa shortly after 6 am LT, that is some 10h before our flight. It had a phone number for reference.

We tried calling that number without success, but after some attempts we managed to contact the Beirut reservation office which is opened on Saturday mornings. At first they rebooked my wife for Friday and said would do the necessary and would call us back. After 2h and seeing the closing hour coming up I called again and reached someone after a few attempts, who rebooked and confirmed us all on flights next Saturday. The first agent must have messed things up because we know have 2 reservation codes instead of just the original one and are split; I'll make sure to use the online seat reservation again.

Now we're waiting to see when flights will resume and hoping that the could will not start affecting this region by the time it clears European skies or we may be stuck that much longer. We'll also make an attempt at getting earlier seats when that happens.

Luckily (or unluckily) I may be able to work right here as my organization has a "local branch" where I should find a free desk or be able to bring some different expertise.

schouppe
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by schouppe »

luchtzak wrote:I am supposed to leave on holiday next monday with the kids, Jetairfly to Alicante. I think I will go for the refund and enjoy holiday in Belgium. But will decide tomorrow evening. !


Good luck but I will cancel my holiday and go to the belgian coast. Even if the airspace is open again, it will be a big mess and flights will leave with huge delays.


Enjoy your holiday.

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Depretair
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by Depretair »

Airspace closed untill sunday 14h LT (Belgian time) (12:00 Z) now ...
What a nightmare ...

joyraider
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by joyraider »

Ducatibiker wrote:The way Brussels Airlines is dealing with this problem shows once again their inability to handle customers properly. I received a SMS telling me that the flight was cancelled - no answer from their call center, no help at all. Had to rent a car to get BRU...once I got here, the desk of Brussels Airlines was just closed ! Once again it shows that they don't care about passengers !
:D

You made me smile here. Any idea what a situation like this means for an airline? How f#cking hard people are working round the clock to minimize damage here? Would I be working at an airline, you'd be the type of customer I'd like to hit right in the face. Lucky there's only a few..

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sn26567
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Post by sn26567 »

Statement - Financial Impact of Icelandic Volcano Ash

The air transport industry is experiencing major disruption of services following the Iceland volcanic eruption.

IATA’s initial and conservative estimate of the financial impact on airlines is in excess of US$200 million per day in lost revenues. In addition to lost revenues, airlines will incur added costs for re-routing of aircraft, care for stranded passengers and stranded aircraft at various ports.

IATA has set up its crisis center in Montreal and is closely coordinating with Eurocontrol and European air navigation service providers.

IATA 16 April 2010
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sn26567
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by sn26567 »

Swiss International Air Lines Final update for tonight: all departures on Saturday and Sunday (17/18 April) from Switzerland have been cancelled. Please do not come to the airport and check swiss.com for further information, in case you had booked a flight. More information will follow tomorrow morning, as soon as we get an update from the authorities and our operations team.
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sn26567
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by sn26567 »

LATEST UPDATE OF FLIGHT DISRUPTION FROM CITYJET

Monday 19th April: All CityJet flights into and out of London City are cancelled.

The following flights are also cancelled due to the closure of airspace in Holland and Belgium:

ANTWERP - MANCHESTER
ROTTERDAM - HAMBURG
AMSTERDAM - BASLE/MLH

Appropriate measures are being taken as the situation evolves and updated information is being made available on www.cityjet.com. An update regarding flights operating on Tuesday 20th April will be published here on Sunday 18th April at 18h00 local UK time, 17h00 GMT.
André
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tolipanebas
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by tolipanebas »

NCB wrote: KLM safely completed a test-flight with a B737 at 41000ft an hour ago and are checking the aircraft right now..
That's what they call flying in the face of Eurocontrol and that London-based met-office which is sending out the volcano warnings on which the civil aviation authorities are heavily relying on.

Look, it hasn't been said loudly yet, because safety has always been the main concern of airlines allover the EU, and a volcanic ash clould over Europe is a rare event indeed nobody has much experience with, but it is beginning to appear the estimations of the danger area of the ash cloud are WAY WAY off and are EXTREMELY cautious to say the least, even by the most cautious standards!

The area affected by the ash cloud as presented by the london met office is not so much based on OBSERVATIONS, but rather on CALCULATIONS: in short, they are tracking an air mass which originally started off in Iceland, without knowing if and where the ash is in it, if any! As time goes by, obviously the mathematical model itself gets less precise, hence the area is constantly spreading... :roll:

The best proof in how unaccurate the forcast is is in the fact the Mr. Schouppe decided to close the Belgian FIR Thursday at 1600l, when the 'ash cloud' was expected to pass through anytime soon according to the london met office, but it didn't till around 24 hours later (as detected by radar)!

That KLM flight your talking about climbed up to no less than FL410 and flew a wide path up north, ENTIRELY in the contaminated area, reportedly not encountering any problems at all (although detailed analysis of data needs to be done still), but if confirmed, this just proofs that we're indeed being fooled here by a bunch of overly cautious nerdy scientists who scare the hell out of some civil servants as they enjoy their moment of glory, just like happened with that Mexican Flue joke of a couple of months ago, a pandemic disaster for which people were scared for months in a row, yet which went by hardly unnoticed in the end.

Wouldn't be surprised to find out that this ash cloud is much of the same, for 95% of the affected area, and it seems some of the biggest airlines in the world are quietly thinking the same and trying to gather empirical evidence to challenge the decision to ground them.

If this turns out to be the case indeed, then some people should be forced to quit, as a simple 'better safe than sorry' is not going to do.

taz1968
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Re: Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland

Post by taz1968 »

tolipanebas wrote:
NCB wrote: KLM safely completed a test-flight with a B737 at 41000ft an hour ago and are checking the aircraft right now..

Look, it hasn't been said loudly yet, because safety has always been the main concern of airlines allover the EU, and a volcanic ash clould over Europe is a rare event indeed nobody has much experience with, but it is beginning to appear the estimations of the danger area of the ash cloud are WAY WAY off and are EXTREMELY cautious to say the least, even by the most cautious standards!

The best proof in how unaccurate the forcast is is in the fact the Mr. Schouppe decided to close the Belgian FIR Thursday at 1600l, when the 'ash cloud' was expected to pass through anytime soon according to the london met office, but it didn't till around 24 hours later (as detected by radar)!

That KLM flight your talking about climbed up to no less than FL410 and flew a wide path up north, ENTIRELY in the contaminated area, reportedly not encountering any problems at all (although detailed analysis of data needs to be done still), but if confirmed, this just proofs that we're indeed being fooled here by a bunch of overly cautious nerdy scientists who scare the hell out of some civil servants as they enjoy their moment of glory, just like happened with that Mexican Flue joke of a couple of months ago, a pandemic disaster for which people were scared for months in a row, yet which went by hardly unnoticed in the end.

Wouldn't be surprised to find out that this ash cloud is much of the same, for 95% of the affected area, and it seems some of the biggest airlines in the world are quietly thinking the same and trying to gather empirical evidence to challenge the decision to ground them.
Lets put you than in a testflight up to flightlevel 250!!! ;)
Since you are so sure that everybody is wrong and you are right.

First of all it is been observed and checked that these vulcanic ashes of this volcano only reach to a level of about 280 and not under 150
so the test flight the KLM A/C did according to your information was WAY above that level.
(but I was under the impression that the KLM A/C would only do a testflight up to 9000ft?? :? )

I think although the situation is not good, I would rather be stuck in spain on the beach (or in an airport), than in an Aircraft which looses all its engines because it flew through highly dangerous vulcanic ashes.
As you already said, not much is known about the affects and the concentrations of vulcanic ash, the only thing thats sure, that already a couple of flights lost engine power because of flying through vulcanic ashes.

Conclusion for me: That untill that time that much more is known of the consequences, i would rather be safe than sorrow. :ugeek:

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