Much of the northern hemisphere is in an upheaval due to the eruption of an Icelandic volcano. Dormant for nearly 200 years, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano is sending ash and dust up into airline flight paths making air travel impossible across large swaths of Europe.
Curtailed Flights
Travelers are stranded at airports around the world, finding that flights across the Atlantic Ocean have been curtailed, costing airlines some $200 million daily in lost revenue. According to the Associated Press, a pair of Finnish F-18 jets incurred engine damage when their flights took them through contaminated airspace. That’s a prime example why airline traffic has been limited as no one wants to risk sensitive equipment being damaged, perhaps rendering the aircraft unsafe to fly.
Untold numbers of passengers have been inconvenienced with many having to spend days in airport hangars waiting for word on when they can fly. It will probably take many days, perhaps weeks before any semblance of “normalcy” returns, even much longer if this volcano continues to erupt.
Travel Insurance
Some travelers are receiving help from their airlines and are being put up in hotels as well as booked on the next available flight. Lots of airlines, however, are not compensating passengers which means that fliers should check with their travel insurance provider to see what is covered.
Says Jim Grace, president and CEO of online travel insurance comparison site InsureMyTrip.com, “Contact your insurance provider for information on their provisions, as they vary by company and plan. If you don’t already have insurance protection, it is no longer possible to purchase it for this particular event of planes being grounded due to volcanic ash in the air.”
Volcanic Tourism
The economic fall out from the volcano has yet to be tabulated given that it is still erupting and plans are being canceled, postponed or otherwise changed at this moment. Iceland stands to reap a huge climate fall out as ash and dust descends on farms across this isolated island. Crops may not be able to grow, but there could be a silver lining in all of this: tourism may increase as people flock to Iceland to view the erupting volcano up close and personal.
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Picture: Wikimedia Commons file photo
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