European air space gradually starts to reopen

The Spanish Secretary of State for the EU, Diego López Garrido, and the European Commissioner for Transport, Siim Kallas, in the European Parliament  on Tuesday defended the management of the air crisis caused by the eruption of an Icelandic volcano and said that they were confident that the measures adopted by the EU-27 will allow air space to progressively reopen.

López Garrido called on European governments to make an “extraordinary” effort to repatriate nationals stuck in Europe using alternative means of transport. “To return home is the principal right of these citizens”, said the Spanish Secretary of State, who said that this crisis “is unprecedented”.

From today, the EU has established three areas of risk according to the concentration of ash in order to slowly return to air traffic normality, authorising flights in the areas where the volcanic ash cloud is less dense.

The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) restricted air traffic on Monday in Denmark, western Ireland and the south of Sweden, while air space in Spain, Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Austria, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine is open.

The opening of other areas, where ash contamination is lower, is the direct responsibility of national authorities.

Establishing these three areas will not bring an immediate normalisation to flights as “airlines must reassign planes and crews and prioritise different routes”, explained the Spanish Minister of Public Works in a communiqué.

López Garrido also announced that there will be a new meeting of transport ministers soon in order to continue studying the matter and that, meanwhile, the EC will study the economic consequences of the crisis and the possibilities of helping passengers and airlines.

On Tuesday the Commission pointed out that the volcanic ash has caused some 84,000 flights in Europe to be cancelled, and that it will consider setting up a similar framework to that approved after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 to facilitate state support for the airlines affected.