Flight disruption due to ash clouds ease

Financial losses to airlines due to the spread of volcanic ash across the European sky will be minimal when compared to revenue lost last year, experts observed. Aviation industry lost an estimated $1.8 billion (Dh6.6 billion) in revenue following the Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption in Iceland last year as the industry saw one of the biggest mass shutdown of airspace, according to a Gulf News report. "Airlines will not suffer the same magnitude of revenue loss as they did last year in volcanic ash. Last year's closure of almost all European airspace for nearly a week was the biggest shutdown in modern aviation history. This year we are not seeing anything like the same shutdown," an IATA spokesperson was quoted by Gulf News as saying. Other industry experts echoed the same view. "Any losses will be minimal and will hurt only those airlines affected by the disruption. If anything, losses/costs shouldn't exceed a few million dollars cumulatively," said Saj Ahmad, UK-based aerospace and aviation analyst with FBE Aerospace. Ahmad reiterated that any financial impact will be "very limited" as there hasn't been a wholesale closure of airspace. Last year’s incident saw as many as 10,000 flights grounded in the first six months, while this year so far only 1,000 flights were cancelled over just two or three destinations, as airlines showed better preparedness for handling the situation. Emirates was the only Gulf carrier to cancel a flight on Wednesday on its Dubai-Hamburg-Dubai route, while other major regional carriers Etihad and Qatar Airways said they were operating their flight schedules "as normal". Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, collectively lost about $130 million last year during the grounding of flights, while this year apart from one route for Emirates all three have so far managed to avoid any disruption. Though the drifting ash cloud on Wednesday forced the closure of German airports for a good part of the day, most flights were limping back to normalcy in the latter half of yesterday as eruptions from the volcano slowly dissipated.