Europe's airspace reopens for business

Passengers walk with their luggage at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport in northern Paris as a plane takes off yesterday. All long-haul passenger services to and from France and three quarters of shorter flights are operating as scheduled after days of disruption caused by volcanic ash in Iceland. Photo: AFP

Europe's airspace reopened for business as Iceland's volcano lost its fury yesterday, leaving passengers scrambling to get a flight home and airlines to count the 1.7 billion dollar cost of the crisis.
Three-quarters of flights scheduled in Europe should take place, said the body coordinating air traffic across the continent, a week after a volcanic eruption in Iceland caused the worst disruption to aviation since World War II.
While experts in Iceland said the Eyjafjjoell volcano had lost most of its intensity, airline bosses were frantically adding up the cost of the crisis which their umbrella body said had cost 400 million dollars a day at its peak.
After authorities in Britain finally reopened the whole of its airspace on Tuesday night, all of Europe's main air hubs were up and running once more with Germany reopening its airspace at 0900 GMT. Even Iceland's Nordic neighbours Norway, Denmark and Sweden lifted the last of their flight restrictions.
"Eurocontrol expects approximately 21,000 flights to take place today in European airspace. On a normal Wednesday, we would expect 28,000," said a statement from the Europe-wide coordinating body.
Millions had their travel plans affected since governments closed their airspace last Thursday and IATA, the body representing the global airline industry, put the overall cost at 1.7 billion dollars (1.3 billion euros).
European governments "must take their responsibility" and help the carriers, said IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani.
British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh had branded the ban unnecessary, with the disruption heaping more misery on an airline still reeling from a recent strike.
Flights were finally cleared for landing at London's Heathrow airport on Tuesday night, but BA flew around two dozen long-haul planes back to Britain even before the no-fly zone was lifted.
Some were initially turned away and forced to land at other airports but there were scenes of jubilation on other planes when pilots announced they had been cleared to land at Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport.
British newspapers said Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour government, facing an election next month, had been "bounced" into a climb down after a game of brinkmanship.