The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called on European governments and air navigation service providers to urgently develop more precise procedures to identify ash contaminated air space and allow more flights. The call came in the wake of 1000 flight cancellations on Monday, 17 May as a result of the continued volcanic eruptions in Iceland.
“The current European-wide system to decide on airspace closures is not working. We welcome the operational refinements made by the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) in their theoretical model, but we are still basically relying on one-dimensional information to make decisions on a four-dimensional problem,” said IATA director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani.
Bisignani called for more robust data collection and analysis, a change in the decision making process and urgency in addressing the issues.
“Not one aircraft has reported significant ash presence and this is verified by post-flight aircraft and engine inspections. We must back the theory with facts gathered by aircraft to test ash concentration. France and the UK are showing that this is possible. If European civil aviation does not have the resources, it should look to borrow the test aircraft from other countries or military sources.
“European carriers bore the worst of the volcano’s impact. Their 11.7% drop in passenger traffic could not have come at a worse time. Europe’s slow recovery from the global financial crisis and its currency crisis are already a huge burden on the profitability of its airlines. The uncoordinated and excessive cancellations and unfairly onerous passenger care requirements rubbed salt into the European industry’s wounds,” said Bisignani.
He urged Europe to reform air traffic management. “The ash crisis was an embarrassing wake-up call for European governments. We need leadership to deliver a Single European Sky, fair passenger rights legislation and continent-wide coordination.”
The scale of the ash crisis saw global load factors drop to 76.9% from the 78.0% recorded in March. Freight load factors also dipped to 55.3% from the 57.1% recorded in the previous month. While March traffic was within 1% of pre-crisis levels for both passenger and cargo, this slipped to 7% for passenger and 3% for cargo in April.
Asia-Pacific carriers saw their strong growth slow to 3.5% (from the 12.9% growth recorded in March). Middle Eastern airlines recorded the strongest traffic growth at 13.0%, which is about half the 25.9% increase of the previous month.
