The real cost and effect of the ash will only come to the fore in the later part of the year. Here are some astounding figures and snippet from an article from Sky News online:
The International Air Transport Association said at the height of the disruption (17-19 April), airlines were losing around £260m ($400m) a day.
Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO, said: “Lost revenues now total more than $1.7 billion for airlines alone.
“At the worst, the crisis impacted 29% of global aviation and affected 1.2 million passengers a day.”The scale of the crisis eclipsed 9/11 when US airspace was closed for three days.”Some savings were made on fuel costs with airlines saving a combined total of £71m ($110m) a day due to grounded planes.
But airlines face added costs including the cost of looking after stranded passengers.
Mr Bisignani said: “For an industry that lost $9.4bn last year and was forecast to lose a further $2.8bn in 2010, this crisis is devastating.”
The group, which represents 230 airlines across the world, also called on governments to relax landing restrictions and provide compensation to help airlines pay for costs incurred in looking after passengers.
Mr Bisignari said: “I am the first one to say that this industry does not want or need bailouts. But this crisis is not the result of running our business badly.
“It is an extraordinary situation exaggerated with a poor decision-making process by national governments. The airlines could not do business normally. Governments should help carriers recover the cost of this disruption,”
