Flights deadlock broken, but thousands still stranded

Germany’s aviation authority broke the flight deadlock today, granting Lufthansa an exemption to fly 50 long-haul planes carrying 15,000 passengers back home below the cloud of volcanic ash hanging over Europe.

Britain chimed in with more good news, saying flight restrictions over Scottish airspace will be lifted tomorrow at 7am, and other British airports could reopen later tomorrow as well.

France tonight said European countries could gradually resume air traffic in designated “caution zones”.

The prime minister’s office said after a meeting of European transport ministers that France is among the European countries whose air space will be opened to some air travel under tight security precautions.

As airline losses spiralled to more than £655m (€744m), the aviation industry condemned European officials, claiming there was “no co-ordination and no leadership” in the crisis that has shut down most European airports for a fifth day.

Eurocontrol, the air traffic agency in Brussels, said less than one third of flights in Europe were taking off today – between 8,000 and 9,000 of the continent’s 28,000 scheduled flights. Airports in southern Europe were open, however, and Spain offered to become an emergency hub for the whole continent.

Lufthansa has been granted permission to fly under so-called visual flight rules.

Visual flight rules allow a pilot to fly the plane without reference to instruments, if weather conditions are good enough so the pilot can see landmarks and avoid any other aircraft. Such flights need to be under 18,000ft, far lower than the usual altitude for commercial traffic.

The exception could help Lufthansa bounce back quicker from the European airport lockdown debacle than other airlines.

Meeting in Paris today, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) expressed its “dissatisfaction with how governments have managed it, with no risk assessment, no consultation, no co-ordination and no leadership”, and called for greater urgency in reopening Europe’s skies.

IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani said: “It’s embarrassing, and a European mess.

“We have to not just use – as the Europeans were doing – a theoretical model, let’s try to use figures and facts. It means sending test planes at certain kinds of altitudes to check the situation with the ashes.”

While the association says “safety is our top priority”, Bisignani said in the statement that its member airlines have run test flights with no problems and “they report missed opportunities to fly safely”.

In Iceland, meteorologists said eruptions from the volcano were weakening and the ash was no longer rising to a height where it would endanger large commercial aircraft.

Video footage still showed smoke billowing into the air from the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers have been stranded around the world since the volcano in southern Iceland begun erupting on Wednesday for the second time in a month.

Passengers in Asia, frustrated over sleeping on airport floors for days and running out of money, staged protests at airport counters today.

European airlines are seeking financial compensation for a crisis that is costing the industry at least £131m (€149m) a day – and by some industry estimates up to £197m (€224m) a day.

Several airlines have run test flights over the last few days, and none reported problems or damage, prompting some airline officials to question whether governments had overreacted to concerns that the microscopic particles of ash could shut down jet engines.