No need for 'joke' flights ban, say airlines

Published on Sunday 16 May 2010 22:51

AIRLINES have branded the latest airspace closures as "beyond a joke" and "overly restrictive", as thousands of Scots face holiday chaos.

• Belfast City and Leeds-Bradford were deserted. Picture: PA

Virgin Atlantic boss Sir Richard Branson demanded intervention to halt flight restrictions after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) extended its no-fly zone because of a cloud of ash from Iceland's erupting volcano.

British Airways said it had "no confidence" in the model being used to determine the amount of ash in the air and the threat to aircraft.

But the CAA hit back at the airlines' criticisms and told Sir Richard it could not simply turn round and tell him: "It'll be all right, off you go."

The extraordinary row ignited yesterday as Prestwick Airport was shut and many flights out of Glasgow and Edinburgh had to be grounded, even though the airports remained open.

Aberdeen Airport was due to close down at 1am today, but was expected to open again at 7am. Prestwick said although it was no longer in the no-fly zone from 1am this morning it would not be receiving any flights until 12:45pm today. London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports also closed from 1am. However, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports were expected to remain open today.

Additional capacity is being made available on alternative transport, including an extra 7,000 seats on Virgin trains.

The no-fly zone imposed by National Air Traffic Services (Nats) included the Western Isles, Campbeltown, Prestwick and Oban, as well as Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and some English and Welsh airports.

The Scottish Government launched a new three-level warning system on its website to give the public more advance travel advice. Finance secretary John Swinney said: "Current predictions suggest the situation is likely to worsen over the next 24 hours before easing into Tuesday."

"Passengers are strongly advised to contact their airlines before travelling to the airport and may wish to consider alternative travel arrangements if possible."

Department of Transport officials said the disruption could last until tomorrow, when a change in wind direction is expected to blow the ash cloud away from Britain – just as strike action by BA staff is due to start.

Sir Richard insisted there was no evidence planes could not fly safely after Manchester Airport closed at 1pm yesterday: "The closing of airspace once again is beyond a joke. All the test flights by airlines, aircraft and engine manufacturers have shown no evidence that airlines could not continue to fly completely safely.

"It is obviously dangerous to fly through the mouth of a volcano, as has been demonstrated time and time again on television by what happened to the BA plane. However, the volcano is hundreds of miles away from the UK.

"Over a thousand flights took off from France last week in similar conditions to that which exist in Manchester today without encountering any problems or showing any levels of ash concentration. We need strong leadership to intervene to avoid doing further unnecessary damage to the UK economy and lives of travellers."

BA said it believed airlines should decide whether or not it was safe to fly, describing the current approach as "overly restrictive" and "not justified".

A spokesman said: "It is clear there is too much reliance on the theoretical model of ash spread produced by a single body: the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre. Like other European operators, we have no confidence in this model as the basis for deciding closures of European airspace.

"The airline industry has a great deal of experience in dealing safely with the potential risk posed by volcanic ash. As a global airline, BA has operated for many years in areas of volcanic activity, and we believe airlines are best placed to take the final decisions on whether or not it is safe to fly. Safety will always be our over-riding priority."

Laurie Price, an air transport consultant, said many countries with active volcanoes continued with flights, and he described the UK approach of closing vast swathes of airspace as "particularly awkward". He went on: "Who's stopping people flying? It's the government through regulatory agencies. You cannot keep the European economy going without air transport.

"If they are taking the precautionary approach, which is the right thing, they have to prove it. And you need more warning than six hours. You need 12 to 24 hours' notice. We should be able to do better – we're in the 21st century, not the 19th."

Air transport consultant John Strickland agreed the onus was on the CAA and Nats, but said all parties had to pull together the best experts to reduce the disruption. He added: "The airline community still believes there's an overreaction and is willing to accept the onus of safety, but says that it can be done with less disruption."

The CAA said it was surprised by Sir Richard's attack, pointing out that Virgin representatives had been at a meeting held on Friday with airlines and manufacturers about the situation. A spokesman said: "They all agreed the way forward, including his airline."

He added it was up to the airlines and engine manufacturers to find a way to make planes fly safely in a higher concentration of ash. "We can't just say: 'It'll be all right, off you go,'" he said. "They have got to work out what their engines can handle. The way they do that is for the airlines and manufacturers to work together. The ball is in his and his engine manufacturer's court."

German authorities sent up two test flights yesterday to measure the ash cloud. One, from the German Aerospace Centre, flew to southern England then continued north, collecting data from between 10,000 and 23,000ft. A Lufthansa Airbus A340-600 flew over northern Germany, the UK and parts of Scandinavia.

Some industry insiders were still expressing caution. One BA pilot, who asked not to be named, said the closing of airspace was "a bit over the top", but that it was best to be safe.

"The safety of passengers is paramount," he said. "If the airline was to put profits first, and there was an accident as a result, it would do irreversible damage to the airlines."

The 14 April eruption at Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano forced most countries in northern Europe to shut their airspace, grounding more than 100,000 flights and an estimated ten million travellers.