International Air Transport Association (IATA) is extremely displeased with the actions of the authorities of European countries associated with the closure of airspace due to volcanic eruption, and calls for urgent review decision-making.
“We are fairly deep into the crisis, to express our dissatisfaction with the government trying to cope with it – without consultation, without coordination, without a count of all the risks and without the necessary leadership,” – said on Monday, 19 April, IATA Director General Giovanni Bizinyani.
According to him, the ban on flights cost airlines $ 250 million dollars daily, and the consequences aviakrizisa will be more severe than after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, reports Reuters.
He believes that governments should abandon all efforts to overcome the crisis and focus on making a decision about when it will be possible again to open the European airspace for flights.
Bizinyani sharply criticized the methodology of decision banning of flights, based on a theoretical construction of the model ash cloud over Europe. According to him, the government gave these decisions at the mercy of civil aviation authorities, which, in turn, took them without proper coordination with air carriers. According to the IATA, this is unacceptable in circumstances where the consequences for the economy is so great.
Chapter IATA believes that the decision to close the entire airspace was wrong. According to him, because of this, the airline lost the opportunity to spend quite safe flights. He also noted that the extent of closing the space in Europe these days is unprecedented: “We have witnessed volcanic activity in many parts of the world, but rarely when it led to the closure of airspace – and never on this scale.”
Recall the closure of airspace over a significant part of the Old World has Eyyafyallayekyul eruption in Iceland, which began on April 14. According to the organization to monitor the safety of air traffic, due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland on Thursday in Europe was lifted about 63 thousand flights.