Airline passenger news and views

There was so much criticism of the CAA and 'authorities' in general about their handing of the first ash crisis that many journalists picked up the cause both for and against.

The facts have probably now caught up with the rhetoric and there appears to be an accord between the various bodies including aircraft / engine manufacturers, operators and regulators that enable proper quantitative and qualitative decisions to be made. During the weekend, some trans-Atlantic flights were delayed because of re-routing north of the affected airspace but the flew and flew safely.

Today, we hear from Ryanair that they have temporarily grounded two aircraft where ash particles have been found in the engine nacelles. Whilst obviously disruptive to schedules, this is a very positive statement. It shows that operators are monitoring and know what to look for and, most importantly, what is and what is not an acceptable level of contamination.

For the passengers stuck on the ground at British airports unable to fly to southern Europe, these advances will be of scant comfort. Also, those people planning to fly later in the week who are being warned of possible delays and cancellations will continue to curse the whole aviation industry. But, let us give credit where credit is due. We have come a long way in the last month and there is now a much better understanding of living with the ash problem.

It is likely that we will have to learn to live with these disruptions. The Icelandic volcano continues to disgorge it contents, albeit at a much lesser rate; and metrological clearance of the ash is a much slower process than most of us anticipated. Short-notice closures of airspace; re-routing and more frequent aircraft checks will impact schedules but aviation is working again and working safely.

The volcano was not a man-made problem. Having been on record criticizing the lack of preparedness, I am now quite impressed by the way that the industry has pulled itself together.