Taking off Travel blog

As another ash cloud affects European air travel, the news is that train and boat companies are cleaning up (not unexpected, I admit). There’s no end date in sight for the eruption, causing many to choose a form of travel that they know won’t be disrupted – and who could blame them. In wondering if something similar could ever happen here, I checked the latest updates on US volcanoes, only to find that one was  on yellow alert, and another on orange. It’s hard to think of any geological situation which would close down all of our airspace, but I still wonder how long the chaos in Europe will continue to affect our global carriers. Call me a pessimist, but when airlines lose money, isn’t it the passenger who pays?

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The news that European airspace has been reopened has not lessened the disruption to travellers. Many people still face severe delays in getting back home – and when they do what else could it cost them? Imagine if you were due to return to your off airport parking lot a week ago and have been racking up additional daily charges ever since. These charges and sometimes run to as much as £12 per day in the UK.

Luckily for some, the airports operated by the  British Airports Authority (BAA), which owns Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow airports have promised to waive additional airport parking charges. London Gatwick and Luton have said the same. But who knows what the dozens of off airport parking firms will do?

Some UK off airport parking providers have little information other than a notice giving the latest update on flight delays. Others have created special pages for update on the volcanic ash situation and how that affects parking charges. For example, Parking4Less has suspended its standard hotel and parking cancellation charges for the time being. BCP has said that with the exception of one of its parking lots, there will be no charge for additional days’ parking as a result of the volcanic ash delays. However there may be other headaches for travellers looking to clean on their insurance. BCP says:

We do not consider volcanic ash to be ‘adverse weather’, therefore there is no cover under the ‘UK Departure Assistance and Missed UK Connection’ and the ‘Missed Departure’ sections.

Additionally, it is not a stated reason to cancel or curtail a trip and therefore there is no cover under the ‘Cancellation, Curtailment and Trip Interruption’ section.

It looks like lots of people will be having tricky conversations with their travel insurance providers.

FlyPark has a long list of which parking lots will allow cancellations and amendments and which will not. It’s bad news for those who have booked Supersaver rates as they will no doubt end up being out of pocket. However many airports on their list have also waived their standard charges.

Airport parking charges aside, there’s still the question of when people were actually be able to get back home as planes are located all over the world in the wrong places. Disruption is likely to continue for some time.

To keep abreast of the latest, check out this Iceland volcano update page from the Telegraph as well as the NATS website.

For years people have been talking about the fact that the world is shrinking, blaming it all on globalisation or capitalism or whatever the pet hate of the day is.  But the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland has shown us that the world really is very small as the consequences of the cloud of ash will stretch far beyond the local area.

Under A Cloud

When I first heard that a volcano erupted in Iceland first thought was that I didn’t even know that Iceland had volcanoes — obviously I wasn’t paying enough attention in my high school geography lessons. But as time has passed it has become obvious that this seemingly local problem has repercussions far beyond its borders. European countries are already beginning to feel the effect of travel disruptions brought about by a closed airspace. As I was writing this post some had already extended the closure into Monday evening but with no real indication that the cloud is dissipating, who knows how long it will last?

An incident like this brings home to us how much we rely on air travel to smooth the wheels of our economy. It’s not just about the travel industry, where airlines who were already struggling for survival are now facing the loss of millions of dollars’ worth of income because of cancellations and delays. Many of them are dipping into their pockets to send people home by rail and ferry (which is fine if you live in Europe). Read more »