Italy fines Ryanair as volcanic activity 'shows no signs of stopping'

Italy’s civil aviation agency has fined Ryanair €3m for failing to help passengers stranded last month when flights were cancelled due to Iceland’s volcanic ash cloud.

The ENAC agency said it found 178 cases of Ryanair passengers who did not receive mandatory assistance such as food, drink and lodgings during the flight shutdown in much of Europe from April 15 to 22.

Ryanair said the company was not aware of any problems.

In Ireland, aviation chiefs have warned of further travel misery as volcanic ash from Iceland drifts closer to the west of Ireland.

The Irish Aviation Authority said due to the prevailing weather conditions, a plume from the North Atlantic is likely to be over the west coast by Sunday morning.

“As a result, Sligo, Donegal and Ireland West (Knock) airports may be closed from early tomorrow morning,” said the IAA statement.

“An update will be provided at 8.30pm following analysis of the latest information due this evening.”

Passengers planning to travel by air over the coming days were advised to regularly check their airline websites and the IAA website before going to the airport.

Meanwhile, an expert today said there were no signs of a halt to volcanic activity in Iceland as air passengers faced the risk of more airport closures.

Dr Dougal Jerram, a volcanologist from Durham University, warned that the last big eruption of Eyjafjallajokull went on for around two years in the early 1820s.

But he said that while the current eruption could last for months, it would not necessarily always cause the problems that have been seen so far.

Dr Jerram said: “The volcano last went off with a big eruption in the 1820s, between 1821 and 1823 I think it lasted. Unfortunately the message is in that previous eruption, we know that the volcano can have a fairly protracted eruptive cycle.

“All we can do is look into past activity and from that we know the volcano can have eruptions that last a relatively long time.”

The scientist continued: “I think several months is certainly something that’s quite likely in terms of its eruptive cycle. It’s already been erupting for a month and it’s not showing too many signs of calming down.

“I don’t think it’s going to stop soon.”

However, Dr Jerram said a number of factors needed to be in place at the same time to create “the perfect storm”.

He said that in order for the volcano to create problems in European airspace it needed to be erupting violently, the plume had to be concentrated enough to get the ash up into the atmosphere and the wind and air patterns needed to be in a certain direction.

“During the last phase, where it was more explosive, the weather patterns weren’t so bad and it wasn’t as disruptive as it could be,” he said.

“A volcano can be erupting for several years and not cause any problems.”

Dr Jerram said one of the reasons this volcano was unusual was that it was erupting beneath a cover of ice.

He explained: “When ice falls into magma, it provides a large volume of gases and adds a lot of water. This causes eruptions to be even more explosive than we can expect.”

Dr Jerram said dynamic modern lifestyles had brought people “face-to-face” with volcanoes that would not have caused any problems in the past.

“Thirty or 40 years ago, if the same volcanic eruption happened it probably wouldn’t have made much news, only with our modern lifestyles we use airspace in quite a different way,” he said.

“It’s brought us face-to-face with the volcanoes, even though they’re hundreds of miles away.

“These volcanoes are not unknown or unusual. It’s not a sudden shock to many of us, it’s more just a reflection of our inability to put that information into full planning.

“Modern lifestyle has developed so quickly but often we don’t take these things into account.”