In France and the rest of Europe, flights may resume tomorrow
April 19, 2010 // 1 CommentGrounded air passengers all over the world may see a return to semi-normalcy beginning Tuesday morning as EU ministers agree to gradual reopening
In a bid to finally move european travlelers stranded for days at airports and in hotels by Iceland’s cloud of volcanic ash, EU transport ministers have agreed to open limited airspace corridors. They called for the “progressive and coordinated” opening of airspace in a second zone further from the volcano. The area immediately around the volcano will remain closed. Tomorrow (Tuesday) will see the first tentative forays back into normalcy for flight schedules, when the agreement goes into effect at 0600 GMT. However, the ministers said “there will be no compromise on safety.”
Tens of thousands of stranded passengers have been forced to spend the last three days at airport benches, cancel plans or look for other travel options. Some airports, such as Singapore, have been handing out food, sleeping bags and short-term travel visas. Groups on school trips, couples on honeymoons and millions of business travellers are making do as best they can wherever they are.
Over the weekend, in France, a couple of test flights were conducted from Paris to Toulouse to get a better idea of conditions in the air.In France main airports in the Paris area, including Charles de Gaulle and Orly, as well as others in the north of the country will remain closed until Tuesday morning, 8am Paris time, Prime Minister François Fillon said on Sunday. Air France is encouraging travelers not to come to the airport until April 20. For the latest updates refer to the airline’s website.
Airports in the northern part of France are also closed until Tuesday morning. On Sunday afternoon, airports opened in Toulouse-Blagnac, Nice, Marseille and Bordeaux, but with disrupted service.
France respects EU “no-fly” zones in its airspace
The French government has announced it would progressively reopen its airports while continuing to ask pilots to respect a no-fly zone in areas defined by EU aviation authorities. France said European transport ministers have agreed to divide the airspace into a no-fly zone defined by the Eurocontrol air traffic agency and “zones of precaution” in which traffic is regulated by national governments.”French territory will be in these zones of precaution, which means that the reopening of all airports will be undertaken progressively,” Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s office said in a statement Monday. It announced a partial reopening of the airports north of the line between Nantes and Nice, which will allow a progressive return to normal traffic.
Of course, whether you can fly all depends where you are flying to. Both British Airways and Amsterdam’s Schipol airport said that all flights in and out were still suspended until further notice and has asked passengers to contact their airlines. Dutch airlines KLM cancelled all flights and low-cost airline Transavia also cancelled all flights.
A beneficiary of the natural crisis has been ground transportation companies, which are scrambling to keep up with demand. Eurostar trains connect London to Paris and Brussels. The high-speed train service has added extra trains. And the Eurolines bus service connects over 500 destinations across Europe. It is also seeing a huge increase in traffic as stranded travellers grope for alternative solutions.
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