Economic impact of European air traffic stoppage

Got to thinking about the economic impacts of the shutdown of so many major and minor airports in Europe.

First thing that comes to mind is the loss of revenue from landing and takeoff fees. That has to be a huge daily hit spread among the airport owners and governments.

The second thought is the income loss by airport employees and and shops with subsequent tax loss for governments.

The third thought is the loss of taxi income, somewhat offset by increased needs of stranded passengers...hard to figure that one. Taxi drivers? What are you guys seeing?

Fourth is that an awful lot of jet fuel is piling up without jets burning it...will there be a glut? Probably, and getting bigger every day.

Fifth thought: hotels depend on cycling, and the flow has stopped, meaning more people than rooms in most big cities. Possible room price inflation.

Sixth: Out-of-place people...lots of people won't be where they thought they'd be when they thought they'd be there, with wildly different results, from personal catastrophes to business ones.

Seventh thought: spoilage. A lot of products are time-dependent and will be lost due to lack of cargo space.

There is no doubt in my mind that the impacts will be enormous, and enormously bad.

Good luck you guys, and please start thinking this stuff through before it becomes a worse crisis than it is.

Assume a week's grounding, then two and three....what will happen then?

What are airport landing charges?

They are the fees that airlines have to pay to use airports in the UK.

BAA has a monopoly of airports in London, and the regulator, the CAA, has to make sure its charges are not excessive for passengers and airlines.

Every five years and as part of its remit, the CAA sets the maximum amount BAA can demand from airlines in landing charges to use Heathrow and Gatwick.

Currently the maximum charge is £9.28 per passenger at Heathrow, and up to £4.91 at Gatwick.

From 2008, this will rise to a maximum of £12.80 per passenger at Heathrow, and £6.79 at Gatwick.

news.bbc.co.uk...

en.wikipedia.org...

www.dfnionline.com...

www.commercialappeal.com...

The current stoppage was due to volcanic ash from Iceland, as well as present strong geomagnetic storm activities which causes a danger to passenger air travel within Europe.

The Life Impact on European air traffic stoppage - Immeasurably Priceless.

Money isnt everything.

[edit on 16-4-2010 by SeekerofTruth101]

Now youve went and started my brain ticking.....thanks
What would the impact be on the fuel saved by grounding 17,000 flights for a couple of days? Who`s losing out?
If it wasnt the fact there was a volcano involved i would say "carefully orchestrated event"
What do you think if you take the volcano out of the equation?

Besides is this dust cloud invisible once airborne? Coz my skies are cloudless blue skies and sunny? Whats the crack there then?

reply to post by apacheman


The impact is quite huge, many stranded in dislocated places.. e.g about 1,500 Quantas passengers stranded at the mid point between Austrailia and the UK.. No flights to and from the North sea oil rigs or to and from the outer Islands.

Then you have the rip off prices on the services that are running or the hotels that are not over booked in those lcoations...Consider the amount of staff businesses are having to fork out long stays in the hotels they are trapped in, and the lost revenue those staff are costing their respective busineses..

Talk about huge headache and huge mess.. Who will foot this bill and how long can it continue without crippling the nations it affects..

Lets not forget freight : Imports / Exports

I know much can be shipped by Road/Train/Sea but for many items that require expedited services it's a bit of a hit to take.....

Many freight companies have been struggling the last 18 months - and if they can't process goods they dont get paid.....

[edit on 16/4/10 by AlwaysQuestion]

i wouldn't worry that much, seriously, gives me a break from all those damn planes spreading *snip* over us on a daily basis, NO more contrails, no more *snip* chemtrails!!!! woo-hoo!!!
finally deep blue skies and fluffy clouds!!!
i could care less about the "economy" and "productivity" and all the other crap they throw at us.... "oooh me god!! the economy is bad...it's a crisis ...." blah blah, who created the crisis in the first place?????? i say "bring it on mother nature, about time!"
the system is corrupt, it should not exist and it eventually will die... what's the point of keeping it alive?
here's a prediction: wait till yosemite volcano wakes up... it's gonna happen soon, MARK MY WORDS
TPTB know their time is up.
Get you popcorn!!!! NOW!!! we're in for a great show

please don't circumvent the censors
Thanks
gallopinghordes
forum mod

[edit on 16-4-2010 by gallopinghordes]

reply to post by raynemarina


i think you may be right there
Something else just dawned on me here, where is all the security protecting the grounded aircraft? Given the goings on globally wouldnt they have made sure aircraft were protected at the highest level given the terrorist threats?
Surely terrorists will have noticed the sitting ducks? Or could this be why the risk was suddenly heightened of nuclear terrorist attacks?
Just thought id point that out from outside the box. What you think?
Also would TPTB have been forewarned regarding an imminent eruption? How advanced is technology?

Given the goings on globally wouldnt they have made sure aircraft were protected at the highest level given the terrorist threats?
Surely terrorists will have noticed the sitting ducks?

Why would a terrorist bomb a plane with no passengers?

Securety on Schipholl (the netherlands) is normal btw (bad that is )

reply to post by apacheman


First Iceland shocked the world by letting their banks default, bankrupting Brits and little British hamlets across the Kingdom .. those darn Icelanders ..

Now what's that coming from Iceland? Ohhh a volcano, with a massive ash cloud that stalls the British economy!

Next the lava melting sea water will cause portions of Great Britain to be submerged in floods!

If you ask me, Iceland has it out for Britain ..

I'm getting tired of that #. Tired of that #. Tired! I'm tired of #ing Earth Day! I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists; these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don't give a # about the planet. They don't care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don't. Not in the abstract they don't. You know what they're interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They're worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn't impress me.

Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are #ed. Difference. Difference! The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We've been here, what? A hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we're a threat? That somehow we're gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's just a-floatin' around the sun?

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles; hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors; worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages... And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet... the planet... the planet isn't going anywhere. WE ARE!

We're going away. Pack your #, folks. We're going away. And we won't leave much of a trace, either. Thank God for that. Maybe a little styrofoam. Maybe. A little styrofoam. The planet will be here and we'll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.

www.climatechangefraud.com...


Good old hippy dippy weatherman...educates us with common sense.

reply to post by whiteraven


loved it lol.. Humanity is an "Evolutionary cul-de-sac" lmfao.. oh man, that's great. And it's so true, environmentalist for the price of one outrageously expensive set of solar panels "to save energy" could clean the city streets of a small south American town. Or feed an entire village for a few years in Africa. Or found a recycling program in China. No, they'd spend 10k on new solar panels to save a few hundred bucks a year.

Originally posted by ThraexX

Given the goings on globally wouldnt they have made sure aircraft were protected at the highest level given the terrorist threats?
Surely terrorists will have noticed the sitting ducks?

Why would a terrorist bomb a plane with no passengers?

Why? either way you look at it, its still going to get a message across Why? passengers wouldnt matter here would it. You would be causing quite a bit of chaos doesnt matter which way you look at it. They have been actually able to delay explosions using timers you know?
If i was in a governments situation right now i would heighten security immediatly around airports more so in the area of where they are kept.

l'm thinking that with no air traffic over most European skies, l'm wondering whether the temperature will increase /decrease . Maybe this will be a good time to measure the strength of the sun as theres no contrails / chemtrails
to reflect the rays away, l remember after 9/11 with no air traffic temperatures rose by a few degrees, scottishdave

In addition to the impact on commuters, the grounding of thousands of flights has cost airlines about $200m a day, according to the International Air Transport Association.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Richard Hunt runs an executive limousine company in Salisbury, which primary transfers customers between the airports and their homes or businesses.

He says that small businesses like his are being hit hard.

"We usually do around 10 trips to the airport every day and for the last couple of days we've had nothing," he said.

"I dread to think how much it's cost us - probably around £1,000 a day.

"It takes something like this to make you realise how dependent we are on air traffic.

"But there's not a lot we can do about it. I'm now making the most of having time to do general housekeeping within the business, like cleaning the cars."

Not just effecting Europe:

Neville, from Nairobi in Kenya, is feeling the effects of the ash cloud as it is stopping flights into his main export markets.

I live many miles away from Europe but my business of supplying fresh produce to the retailers in the UK and continental Europe is virtually at a halt," he said. "No flights northbound and I can't send cargo out, so everything is going into the bin.

"I have also stopped the pack house shifts because of this mess."

news.bbc.co.uk...

Situation not changing quickly:

The no-fly zone across much of Britain after Iceland's huge volcanic eruption this week is set to remain in force over the weekend, placing yet more strain on road, rail and ferry networks already struggling to cope with thousands of stranded passengers.

Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, who met officials at the Civil Aviation Authority, Met Office, and National Air Traffic Services today, said: "It is likely that significant disruption to most UK air services will continue for at least the next 48 hours".

Few, if any flights, are expected over the weekend in England and Wales and the shutdown could carry into next week. Tonight Ryanair cancelled all flights in the area until at least 1pm Monday, citing weather trends that show little sign of blowing the plume away.

The ash cloud continued to hang over England and Wales today, held steady by high pressure.

The verdict from Adonis was the most bleak assessment yet of the impact of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on British air travel. Senior officials from National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said the Met Office was continuing to meet every six hours to update the restrictions and was trying to find even the smallest window to get flights in and out.

www.guardian.co.uk...

The global airline industry is losing more than £130m a day because of the disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud that has brought Britain's air transport network to a halt.

...

BA shares fell by more than 3% today. Other European airlines shares also fell, reflecting the fact that the volcanic ash cloud has disrupted flights across Europe. Ryanair, which cancelled all flights to and from the UK, Ireland, Denmark and Finland today, saw its shares drop by 2.5%, Iberia was down 3.3% and Air France shares were off by 2.9%.

Ashley Steel, global chair for transport and infrastructure at KPMG, warned that US and Asian airlines would also suffer losses, and predicted the global bill could be even higher than Iata estimated.

"The daily lost traffic revenue for airlines as a result of a complete shutdown in UK flights is likely [to be] in excess of £200m per day if all revenue was refundable," said Steel.

...

PrivateFly, an online booking network for private jets, said customer inquiries had soared since Thursday morning. This included four corporate lawyers who were apparently prepared to pay more than £100,000 for an aircraft and crew willing to break the no-fly zone and get them to Nice in time to sign an agreement. No one appeared to have taken them up on this offer, though.

www.guardian.co.uk...

Do bankruptcies loom?

Even if the Icelandic volcano’s eruption stopped tomorrow, thousands of flights in and out of Europe and millions of passengers will be disrupted. And it may take many days to get schedules back to normal, as grounded planes and crew are redirected to the right parts of the world. The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, an Australian airline consultancy, reckons that around 6m passengers will be affected if, as seems possible, the disruption goes on for a third day.

The fear not just for Europe’s airlines but for the continent as a whole is that the effects could last for days or even weeks. Europe’s airlines have struggled through a nasty recession that led to deep losses but until Eyjafjallajökull intervened things seemed to be improving. In February passenger numbers for European airlines were 4.3% up over the year before according to IATA, the airline’s industry body. And in March IATA halved its forecast for airlines losses for the year to $2.8 billion. Yet recovery in the vital transatlantic business market and shrinking short-haul travel continues to put a strain on airline finances. Losing over $200m a day to volcanic disruption will not help.

For all the signs of recovery the situation has worrying echo of the damage wrought to America’s struggling airlines in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001. The suspension of all flights in American airspace for several days in the wake of the terror attacks forced a $15 billion government bail-out for domestic carriers. Even with this help US Airways and United Airlines were forced to file for bankruptcy in 2002. A prolonged disruption of flights in and out of northern Europe could threaten the tentative economic recovery in the region if business travellers and tourists stop arriving.

www.economist.com...

FedEx stopped taking certain Europe-bound express freight shipments until further notice this afternoon, in an effort to avoid a backup from delivery delays.

It was only the second time an entire region had been shut down, "the other obviously being 9-11," said FedEx spokeswoman Ann Saccomano. The announcement came as stoppages of trans-Atlantic and European air traffic broadened because of drifting ashes from an Icelandic volcano eruption.

Saccomano said at about 3:30 p.m.: "Effective immediately and until further notice, FedEx Express is not accepting the following deferred international freight shipments bound for Europe: International Express Freight, International Economy Freight, Airport to Airport and International Premium.

About 500,000 passengers a day normally fly in and out of the UK and families returning from Easter breaks were hit, along with others hoping to jet off for the weekend.

It is estimated the shutdown will cost the UK pounds 300million a day. And the Civil Avation Authority said the fallout could go on for days. CAA spokesman Richard Taylor said: "It all depends which way the wind blows - literally - and whether there is another volcanic eruption .

"It's unprecedented. It is worse than the 9/11 terror attack. That stopped transatlantic air traffic. But even then, flights to the Continent and within the UK continued."

www.americanchronicle.com...

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- British Airways Plc, Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. and carriers that rely on long-haul business travel for earnings will be worst-hit by the shutdown in air travel forced by the eruption of an Icelandic volcano.

Airlines may lose $1 billion if an ash cloud keeps European airports closed through the weekend, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation said. British Airways, which has daily revenue of about 24 million pounds ($37 million), scrapped all flights today as U.K. airspace was restricted until 1 a.m. tomorrow at least.

“Airlines will incur their biggest losses in the trans- Atlantic business-passenger category,” Ashley Steel, Global Chair for Transport and Infrastructure at KPMG, said in an interview. “For an airline like BA, every day of their fleet being grounded is likely to cost tens of millions of pounds. The impact on economy-class revenues is likely to be diluted because people will change their bookings and eventually still fly.”

www.businessweek.com...

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Airlines may lose $1 billion in revenue because a cloud of volcanic ash threatens to keep dozens of airports in the U.K. and northern Europe shut for three more days, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation said.

Some six million passengers will be affected if the shutdown of European airports continues, the consultant said. Delta Air Lines Inc., British Airways Plc and Qantas Airways Ltd. are among the dozens of airlines that have scrapped services after Iceland’s 5,500-foot Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted and winds carried dust across a swath of northern Europe.

“It will take days to restore schedules, even if the scare is called off today,” Capa said in an e-mailed report. Service disruptions intensified as airports in the region remained shut, possibly leading to the cancellation of half of all departures today. British airspace will be closed until at least 1 a.m. tomorrow, according to flight-control authority National Air Traffic Services, compounding disruptions that are among the most severe in U.K. aviation history.

In Germany, 10 airports, including Frankfurt, were shuttered, according to the DFS air traffic control agency.

“Paranoia”

Qantas, which has more than 1,000 passengers holding at Asian stopovers, canceled four services today and is unlikely to resume Europe flights before April 18, spokesman David Epstein told reporters. Singapore Airlines Ltd. axed eight flights while Air China Ltd. and All Nippon Airways Co. also scrapped services.

Airlines worldwide will lose a collective $2.8 billion in 2010 after an estimated $9.4 billion cumulative loss last year, the International Air Transport Association predicted last month.

The ash-plume threat will continue through April 18 for Europe, AccuWeather.com said. NATS is not expecting a rapid improvement in the conditions. “In general, the situation cannot be said to be improving with any certainty as the forecast affected area appears to be closing in from east to west,” the agency said in a statement.

www.businessweek.com...

Airport fees money not going to the government is a good thing because it means that they can't create any more false wars to perpetuate their puppeted existence.

If our mother decided that it was time for us to grow up and leave the nest and populate the galaxy then she will make life on earth uncomfortable.

Birth is one hell of a uncomfortable ride even for the observers...and we are in the birth pangs so fill up your lamp.

lol

Perhaps it is time to bring back an older technology:



Lighter-than-Aircraft!



Using new aterials (ie.: carbon composites), and maybe electric motors instead of air-breathing internal combustion engines, LAV's could usherin a meand of air transport relatively unaffected by levels of volcanic ash that would ground more conventional craft.


Might usher in a whole new era of travel.

I can understand the frustrations held by many who are stranded in airports and waiting for flights to go home or sign deals across the globe.

But for once, the aircraft leaders realized that profits isn't everything. The volcanic ash threat is real and if any passenger aircraft attempts to fly through it, it will only stall and plunge to the ground, killing hundreds if not thousands.

Please do not selfishly push for the stoppages to be lifted. Many other innocents who are not aware of the dangers will gleefully be literally sitting on their boats to the next existance if flights start taking without clearance.

As for the economic impact, such delays do not mean money had stop circulating. It is only being circulated in other channels such as other form of transports and tourism infrastructures. No money actually 'disappears'.

AUSTRIA - Airspace closed until at least Saturday 1800 GMT.
BELGIUM - Airspace closed until at least Saturday 1800 GMT, main airline, Brussels Airlines, cancels all flights until Monday.
BELARUS - Airspace closed on Saturday for flights operating between 6,000 metres and 11,000 metres. Some routes east and south open.
BOSNIA - Just of half of upper airspace open.
BRITAIN - Airspace closed until at least 0600 GMT Sunday. British Airways cancels all short-haul flights on Sunday.
DENMARK - Airspace closed until at least 2400 GMT Saturday. ESTONIA - Airspace closed until at least 2400 GMT Saturday.
FINLAND - Airspace closed until at least 1200 GMT Sunday.
FRANCE - Airports north of a line between Nantes and Lyon closed, including Paris. A total of 26 airports currently shut, with Bordeaux and Grenoble to close by 1400 GMT Saturday.
GERMANY - German airspace shut until at least 0600 GMT Sunday.
GREECE - Flights to northern Europe cancelled.
HUNGARY - Airspace closed until at least 1700 GMT Saturday.
IRELAND - Airspace closed until at least 1200 GMT Sunday.
ITALY - Northern airspace closed until at least 0600 GMT Monday.
LATVIA - Airspace closed Saturday.
LUXEMBOURG - Airspace closed until at least 1900 GMT Sunday.
MONTENEGRO - Airspace closed as of 1400 GMT Saturday.
NETHERLANDS - Airspace closed until at least 1800 GMT Saturday.
POLAND - Airspace closed since Friday, partial reopening possible on Sunday.
PORTUGAL - Airports operating for flights to and from everywhere other than northern Europe.
ROMANIA - Northern airspace closed from 0000 GMT Saturday, to close all airspace from 1500 GMT Saturday.
RUSSIA - All airports open.
SLOVAKIA - Airspace closed as of 1300 GMT on Friday.
SPAIN - Madrid airport open, but carrier Iberia cancels all its European flights except those to or from Portugal, southern Italy, Greece and Istanbul in Turkey.
SWEDEN - Airspace closed on Saturday.
SWITZERLAND - Airspace closed until at least 1800 GMT Saturday, except for aircraft able to fly at altitudes of 36,000 feet (11,000 metres) or higher.
UKRAINE - Kiev airport closed to flights until at least 1200 GMT Saturday. Airports in Lvov, Odessa, Donestsk, Simferopol and Dnepropetrovsk also closed for an unspecified period

hisz.rsoe.hu...

Actually, while bad for the UK and northern Europe, this might be good for Portugal and Spain, actually most of southern Mediterranean Europe. I imagine that a lot of the cargoes that would normally go direct to the UK are probably entering Portugal right now and are being trucked to their ultimate destinations, resulting in a miniboom for the Portugese transport economy.

If this continues for long you might see a shift in EU policy and control from a northern Europe dominated set to a southern Europe one.

Something to think about, eh?