Effects of the April 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption

The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull

The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on 14 April 2010 has affected the economic, political and cultural activities in Europe and across the world.

There was extensive air travel disruption caused by the closure of airspace over many countries. This had a consequent knock on effect to the travel plans of a great many people with plans to travel within, to, or from Europe, including politicians, members of royal families, athletes, musicians and other artists.

The funeral of President of Poland Lech Kaczyński on 18 April 2010 was affected because some national leaders were unable to attend, including Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, and Nicolas Sarkozy.

Economic impacts

Airline industry

Particulate matter in the ejected dust scatters light from the setting sun, generating 'volcanic lavenders' like this one over the flight path of Leeds-Bradford Airport in England during the aviation shutdown.

Main article: Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption

Flights across the world were canceled due to the airspace restrictions and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated the airline industry worldwide loses £130 million ($200 million) a day as a result. The jet fuel prices are going down.

UK economy

Several sectors that depend on air freighted imports and exports have been badly affected by the flight disruptions.

Shortages of imported flowers and fruits are starting. IT hardware firms are also concerned about electronics hardware shortages. Additionally, IT hardware firms that export have not been able to ship their product out.

The pharmaceuticals industry is expecting that it will be hit by spoilage concerns as the stock they manufacture in the UK is time sensitive, and will expire quickly, while not being able to ship to overseas customers. Imports of medications have been affected, and local stocks, as they expire.

Travel firm TUI Travel reported losses of £5-6m per day during the airspace closure due to travellers being unable to return home.

Kenya

Kenya is reported to have needed to destroy 400 tonnes of flowers it was unable to airship into the UK.

Political impacts

Travel disruption

Ash cloud on 15 April 2010

Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin postponed a trip to Murmansk on 15 April due to the presence of the ash.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was in New York City for a conference and became stuck there because of the air travel restrictions and unable to return to Oslo. Stoltenberg and his entourage managed to get by plane to Madrid on Friday, and then onto another plane to Basel, Switzerland. Unable to get a train ride they would be traveling the rest of the way by car and were expected to arrive in Norway on Saturday.

Also, the President of Portugal, Cavaco Silva had to extend his state visit to the Czech Republic due to the volcanic ash. The President made is way from Prague to Barcelona by car and then took a Falcon of the Portuguese Air Force home to Lisbon. President Silva arrived in Portugal on the evening of April 18th. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany was forced to make a "surprise" visit to Portugal as she returned from the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C. She was expected to return to Germany by 10AM on Saturday, but has since then flown to Rome and is also expected to return home to Germany by car.

The ash plume disrupted the UK general election campaign trail on 15 April. Liberal Democrat treasury spokesperson Vince Cable's visit to Dunfermline and West Fife was terminated, as was Labour Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth's journey to Scotland.

Funeral of Lech Kaczyński

Main article: Death and state funeral of Lech Kaczyński

The funeral of President of Poland Lech Kaczyński, killed on 10 April 2010 in the plane crash in Smolensk took place on 18 April without some national leaders present, including Barack Obama, Stephen Harper and Nicolas Sarkozy. Presidential aide Jacek Sasin initially said a postponement until later that day or even the following day was a "very serious alternative", but it was later announced that according to the wish of the president's family the funeral will take place as originally planned. On 17 April delegations from India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Pakistan notified they won't attend as all airports in Poland remain closed until further notice. President Barack Obama released a statement Saturday afternoon that he would not be able to attend the funeral due to the volcanic ash and the air traffic disruptions. He stated, in a phone call to acting President Bronisław Komorowski, "Michelle and I continue to have the Polish people in our thoughts and prayers..."

Military and civil impact

The Forecasting Economic Support Group of ICAO's Committee on Aviation Environment Protection postponed a planned summit in Bern as North American and Scandinavian members would be unable to attend.

The repatriation of five German Bundeswehr soldiers wounded in action on 15 April in Afghanistan had to be postponed due to the closing of the German airspace. The MEDEVAC plane carrying them from Termez Airbase was rerouted to Istanbul where they are to be treated pending further developments.

Cultural impacts

Arts

Television

The ash plume has been reported to have had effects on the arts worldwide, with multiple articles detailing the chaos and cancellations, from the Daily Mail to The New York Times.

One of the early widely reported incidents was the trouble of actor/comedian John Cleese, who spent 30,000 Norwegian kroner (roughly £3,300) on a taxi journey from Oslo to Brussels after his flight from Norway was cancelled due to the ash plume. He had been appearing on Skavlan and hoped to catch the Eurostar in order be back home in London by 17 April. He told Norway's TV2 before embarking on the epic journey: "It will be interesting. I'm not in a hurry". The 1,500 kilometre journey lasted around 15 hours, and Cleese passed through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium during his voyage.

Naturalist and television presenter Sir David Attenborough and his crew, who had reached the North Pole to film the upcoming BBC nature series The Frozen Planet, were stranded in the Arctic when the volcanic ash forced air space closure. BBC executives expressed concern that Attenborough's crew would lack food and supplies if they were unable to leave the location, which they reached in a private plane.

Music

Singer Whitney Houston, who was in the process of performing her European leg of her Nothing but Love World Tour, initially planned to fly from Birmingham International Airport to Dublin Airport, but was forced to travel by ferry from Holyhead on 15 April to her next venue in Ireland. She travelled by car from Birmingham to Holyhead and told her record company to publicise her new arrangements so fans would not fear cancellation.

Irish Ferries also reported accomodating rapper Dizzee Rascal and indie band Darwin Deez, and several WWE wrestlers after their flights to various performances were disrupted.

Dr. Hook's Dennis Locorriere had to postpone until September a solo concert at Belfast's Waterfront Hall after being unable to fly over from London.

Some British musical acts scheduled to perform at the 2010 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California, including Bad Lieutenant, Gary Numan, Delphic, Frightened Rabbit and The Cribs have encountered flight cancellations, jeopardizing their scheduled slots, all of them eventually cancelling. The only Icelandic musician scheduled to perform at the festival, Jónsi Birgisson, left Iceland prior to the eruption.

British indie band Los Campesinos! - erroneously reported by some news outlets as a performer at Coachella - had to cancel their performance at the Culture Shock festival on the campus of SUNY Purchase as they were unable to get out of Britian due to the delays.

The New York Times wrote of the effect on opera, jazz and philharmonic concerts, with Carnegie Hall "suffer[ing] an immediate casualty" with the loss of a performance of the works of Louis Andriessen, whom it described as "the most prominent living composer from the Netherlands and a major figure in European music". A pianist Gerard Bouwhuis was trapped in Amsterdam and the Bang on a Can All-Stars were trapped in a Frankfurt hotel.

Many travelers headed to the In Qontrol event in Amsterdam could not make it to the event, leaving many empty places in the hall.

The Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists which is held in Oslo, Norway is also affected, it was scheduled to begin on 16th April but will be postponed until 18th April due to traffic disruption.

Irish stand-up comedian Dara Ó Briain was performing on the Isle of Man on 15th April when the volcano erupted. As a result, he was unable to fly out and he was forced to cancel a performance in Woking, England. He left the Isle of Man via the Mersey Ferry.

On the night from Sunday, April 18, to Monday, April 19, several flights were cancelled at St. John's International Airport, St. John's, Canada, owing to a 30% chance the ash cloud could arrive there. Some musicians who had attended the Juno Awards in the city were concerned about delays, with Michael Bublé hurrying back to the mainland before the closure. Travel to the Junos had previously been disrupted by heavy fog.

Sports

Sports teams were also affected, including French rugby league teams competing in the Challenge Cup and the British team participating in the ice hockey World Championships in Slovenia, who changed their plans from air to bus and train. The situation is uncertain as the duration of the plume cannot be predicted; events are being postponed or cancelled.

FC Barcelona were unable to travel by plane to Milan and was forced to travel by bus, including a one-night stopover in Cannes, to participate in the UEFA Champions League semi final first leg match against F.C. Internazionale Milano

In rugby union, air travel disruption forced the postponment of a match between Switzerland and Lithuania in the third division of the European Nations Cup.

Formula One has seen cases of disruption. With all of the current teams operating out of Europe (McLaren, Renault F1, Mercedes GP, Force India, Red Bull Racing, Lotus Racing and Virgin Racing in the United Kingdom alone) many are concerned about whether they can get from the 2010 Chinese Grand Prix to their bases and onward to the 2010 Spanish Grand Prix with the inability to presently fly. It is estimated that the journey would take several weeks over land and even longer by ship. One commentator suggested that the teams could fly into Spain and continue on land from there. Some members of the media — such as Eddie Jordan — have been unable to fly out because their flight was booked for a time under the restrictions.

Other BBC sports personnel affected include Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker (holidaying in Tenerife, he booked a flight to Madrid on 16 April, hired a car at the airport, drove through the night to Paris, caught the Eurostar to London and was not due to arrive until 5:30 pm, a mere few hours before he is due on TV, Clare Balding (she drove from Switzerland to present a Challenge Cup rugby league game between Hull and Leeds) and football commentator Jonathan Pearce (he drove from France to be in England for the football on 17 April).

Many of the teams at the 2010 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship and 2010 World Senior Curling Championships are being delayed.

Several cyclists who reside in Spain were unable to make it to the 2010 Amstel Gold Race, including favorites Alejandro Valverde and Luis León Sánchez.

WWE were on their annual European Tour when the eruption took place. The result was WWE postponing their SmackDown shows in Austria and Istanbul.

Douglas Williams who was to defend his TNA X Division Championship at the pay-per-veiw event Lockdown was unable to fly out of the United Kingdom. This resulted in Williams being stripped of his title.

Other

Fark's Drew Curtis has been stranded in Armenia following a joint Fark/Reddit meetup.

Impact on other forms of transport

Cancellation of European flights is causing a considerable switch to other modes of transport:

• Within Europe, a great many people are trying to reach their destination by train or bus instead of aircraft. Train companies report a remarkable increase in passenger numbers, and despite adding services, suggest that prospective passengers should make reservations beforehand.
• Most UK and Irish ferry routes are exceptionally busy.
• Eurostar passenger trains are solidly booked, and the Eurotunnel car-carrying trains which run through the Channel Tunnel are very busy, and extra trains are scheduled to run while the disruption of air travel continues.
• Irish coach operator Bus Éireann have arranged extra Eurolines services between Ireland and England via ferry.
• It is yet unknown when the volcanic dust will descend, and the impact it will have on other carbon based means of transport. There is some concern in the UK that it will lead to the immobilisation of the country's vehicle fleet.

External links

Ash from Iceland volcano could affect UK flights at Wikinews European airspace closed by volcanic ash at Wikinews Volcanic eruption starts on top of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland at Wikinews Icelandic volcanic eruption prompts evacuation, flight diversions at Wikinews Europe's airline chaos: in depth at Wikinews