Volcanic ash cloud: airlines challenge rulings by aviation regulators

Ryanair, easyJet and other carriers say ash from Iceland's Grímsvötn volcano not as severe as Civil Aviation Authority says
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Airlines have rounded on regulators in the UK and Ireland after thousands of airlines passengers were hit by delays and cancellations as a cloud of volcanic ash disrupted airports in Scotland and northern England.

Ryanair claimed it had flown a Boeing airplane through a no-go part of the ash cloud over Scotland this morning and found no harmful effects to the engines or fuselage, while the International Air Transport Association alleged that the UK air safety watchdog, the Civil Aviation Authority, did not have an atmosphere monitoring plane available.

Although airports remained open on Tuesday, airlines halted hundreds of flights amid safety concerns at the high density of ash caused by the eruption of the Grímsvötn volcano, in Iceland.

British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Loganair, Flybe and KLM were among carriers cancelling flights. Transatlantic flights operating through Icelandic airspace suffered delays of up to an hour today as they were diverted around the densest parts of the ash cloud emitted by the Grímsvötn volcano.

However, BMI was still operating out of Edinburgh and Glasgow, saying the ash remained further north than forecast earlier. The airline was constantly reviewing the situation, it said.

The Barcelona football team said it would travel to London on Wednesday night for Saturday's Champions League final against Manchester United, in case the ash cloud left the team contemplating an epic rail journey.

There were concerns the cloud would later spread south, affecting flights to northern England and Northern Ireland.

A number of flights from Newcastle international airport have been cancelled, including services to Paris, Brussels, Faro, Amsterdam, Aberdeen, Belfast international and Malta. Arrivals to Newcastle from Aberdeen, Amsterdam and Exeter have also been cancelled.

Meanwhile, four easyJet flights to and from Belfast international (flights to and from Newcastle and Glasgow) have been cancelled.

Philip Hammond, the transport secretary, who has promised there will be no blanket airspace closures similar to those last year, suggested on the BBC's Newsnight on Monday that "we have got to learn to live" with disruption. There were now "much more robust systems to minimise the disruptive effect", he said.

Since last year's eruption the authorities had gained a much better understanding of the risk from ash clouds, he said.

"Most importantly, the basic situation now is that the threshold for most aircraft is 20 times where it was last year. We have got from 200 micrograms (mcg) per cubic metre, to 4,000mcg per cubic metre as the threshold up to which most aircraft can fly.


Hammond will chair a meeting of the government's Cobra committee on the ash cloud later on Tuesday. A government source said the situation remained variable, with the possibility that dense ash would drift over Glasgow and Edinburgh between 1pm and 7pm before clearing. The source added: "These things change from hour to hour."

Mass cancellations at airports on Tuesday by airlines including easyJet and British Airways are viewed as an operational decision as those companies try to ensure their schedules operate more smoothly once the ash clouds clear. According to the latest forecasts, high-density ash could begin to affect southern England by Friday.

Ryanair, Europe's largest short-haul airline, condemned the new regulatory regime today. Its one-hour test flight took off from Glasgow Prestwick, then flew to Inverness, on to Aberdeen and down to Edinburgh – all of which, according to CAA charts, were in a zone of high concentration of ash. In a direct challenge to the efficiency of the safety regime, Ryanair urged the Irish and UK regulators to "reopen" airspace over Scotland.

Ryanair said in a statement: "There was no visible volcanic ash cloud or any other presence of volcanic ash, and the post-flight inspection revealed no evidence of volcanic ash on the airframe, wings or engines.


Regulators, including the CAA, are likely to object to Ryanair's claim that Scottish airspace is "shut", because airlines can fly through medium or high ash concentrations, providing they make a sufficient safety case.

The Irish Aviation Authority added to the confusion by stating that Ryanair's first application for safety approval had to be sent back to the carrier on Monday for unspecified reasons, and a tweaked proposal was still under consideration. An IAA spokeswoman said: "They are not cleared to fly. We have not had time to analyse the safety case and until that is done they do not have permission to fly [in contaminated airspace]."

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) also joined Ryanair in condemning the approach of regulators. In a letter to the transport secretary, Philip Hammond, the airline industry's main lobbying body claimed the CAA's monitoring plane is not in use and there is no spare. As a result, the CAA has not monitored the density of the cloud from the air.

In a robust letter to Hammond, the chief executive of IATA, Giovanni Bisignani, said: "It is astonishing and unacceptable that Her Majesty's government cashes £3.5bn each year in air passenger duty but is incapable of using a small portion of that revenue to purchase another Cessna to use as a backup aircraft. I ask please that you ensure that all possible efforts are made to get the existing aircraft operational in the shortest possible time."

Bisignani added that non-European airlines could be confused by the ash cloud because their regulators would be insufficiently aware of the latest EU guidelines on flying through volcanic plumes. "We need a clear, consistent and appropriate response, which is workable for all airlines globally, not a repeat of the fragmented mess that happened last year." Pointedly, the chief executives of British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and bmi were cc'd into the letter.

Under previous guidelines, aircraft were summarily grounded if there was any volcanic ash in the air; airlines may now fly through ash plumes if they can demonstrate their fleets can handle medium- or high-level densities of ash.

Meanwhile, passengers at Glasgow airport were preparing for long delays in reaching some destinations. Elizabeth Flaherty, from East Kilbride, was hoping to travel to Mallorca at 8.30am. She arrived at the airport just before 6am to be told her flight would not be leaving. She said she had been told a coach would take her to Manchester at 12.45pm for a flight at around 5pm.

She said: "It's going to be a long day. I'm trying to stay cheerful. There's nothing else I can do."

Pat Gribbon, from Renfrew, was due on the same flight for a holiday with his wife, Rita. He said: "Everyone has been very helpful. It's just a question of waiting.

"I suppose it's just one of those things. No one can help it, but it is frustrating. I feel sorry for people with kids."

The Met Office's volcanic ash advisory centre is tracking the cloud, aided by satellite images, weather balloons and a radar system installed in Iceland last year.

Once information is relayed to airlines, they will need to prove they can fly through the zones by producing "safety cases" that will include information from aircraft and engine manufacturers on the airline's tolerance to volcanic ash.

Ryanair was seeking an urgent meeting with Irish aviation authorities on Tuesday, saying it had been told late on Monday that it could not operate flights to Scottish destinations until at least Tuesday afternoon. "Ryanair believe that there is no safety risk to aircraft on fights operating to and from Scotland," the company said.

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