Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption
| Flight video; variations of traffic due to ash cloud | |
 Radar animation
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In response to concerns that volcanic ash ejected during the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland would damage aircraft engines, the controlled airspace of many European countries was closed to instrument flight rules traffic, resulting in the largest air-traffic shut-down since World War II. The closures caused millions of passengers to be not only in Europe, but across the world. With large parts of European airspace closed to air traffic, many more countries were affected as flights to and from Europe were cancelled.
After an initial uninterrupted shutdown over much of northern Europe from 15 to 23 April, airspace was closed intermittently in different parts of Europe in the following weeks, as the path of the ash cloud was tracked. The ash cloud caused further disruptions to air travel operations in Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland on 4 and 5 May and in Spain, Portugal, northern Italy, Austria and southern Germany on 9 May. Irish and UK airspace closed again on 16 May and reopened on 17 May.
The eruption occurred beneath glacial ice. The cold water from the melting ice chilled the lava quickly, causing it to fragment into very small particles of glass (silica) and ash, which were carried into the eruption plume. The extremely fine ash particles and the large volume of steam from the glacial sent an ash plume hazardous to aircraft rapidly high into the upper atmosphere. The presence and location of the plume depended upon the state of the eruption and the winds. The large amount of glacial meltwater flowing into the eruption vent made this eruption so explosive that it injected its ash plume directly into the jet stream, which was unusually stable and south-easterly. The ash was then carried over Europe into one of the busiest airspace in the world.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated that the airline industry worldwide would lose 148 million € (US$200 million, GB£130 million) a day during the disruption. IATA stated that the total loss for the airline industry was around US$1.7 billion (£1.1 billion, €1.3 billion). The Airport Operators Association (AOA) estimated that airports lost £80 million over the six-and-a-half days. Over 95,000 flights had been cancelled all across Europe during the six-day travel ban, with later figures suggesting 107,000 flights cancelled during an 8-day period, accounting for 48% of total air traffic and roughly 10 million passengers.
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