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29 March 2024

Ash cloud couldn't have come at a worse time

Published

The black humour among European airlines last week was that the next catastrophe to hit the industry would be a plague of locusts. Recession, Swine Flu, strikes and now a giant volcano that has shut down most of Northern Europe's airspace for days – what more could go wrong!

The Icelandic eruption could not have come at a worse time for airlines as they gear up for the busy summer travel season, providing yet more encouragement for holidaymakers to stay at home this year. Even carriers in other parts of the world have been affected. Emirates said the volcano had cost it $50 million (Dh183.5m) in just a couple of days. I was interviewing James Hogan, the chief executive of Etihad, Abu Dhabi's airline, when it was first announced last week that British airspace would definitely be shutting. There was no insurance for this type of event, he explained. It was just one of the hazards of running an airline.

Etihad put up stranded transfer passengers in hotels around Abu Dhabi and brought two A340s that were in maintenance back into the fleet to get operations restarted as quickly as possible.

This has been an incredibly frustrating week for everyone – passengers and airline executives alike – but there really was very little that could be done about the situation.

David Robertson is Business correspondent of The Times of London. The views expressed are his own