Volcanic Ash in Europe causing havoc with air travel

[KeithMEL]

A friend is currently stranded in HKG. QF has put her up in a hotel along with meal allowances, though no such luck if you'd joined the flight in Asia or had a stopover there. Up until yesterday, QF flights to LHR and FRA were still operating as normal, as they were not going to suspend flights and were hoping for the best. Now all QF flights which have departed for Europe are stuck at their midway points in SIN/BKK/HKG. Along with all the conferences going on, it is no wonder hotels in SIN seem to be so full this weekend...

[feb01mel]

It has been reported in Singapore news that there is a shortage of hotel rooms in the island of Singapore today & tomorrow, so some passengers still have to spend the night at the airport itself.

[Kiwi]

Perhaps the thread could be retitled as the ash is affecting most of Northern Europe?

Passengers are stranded even here in an airport lounge the other side of the world. This is as disruptive as 9/11.

[sabian]

Hope this clears up soon for those stranded.

Till then, an interesting link forwarded to me by a friend.

www.flickr.com/photos/yahooeditorspicks/galleries/72157623855495574/

[Pinkfloyd]

It is irritating the sh*t out of me as I really need to send some guys from Norway to Abu Dhabi on Monday but I am not sure if the air space will be open by then...

[SQflyergirl]

It is irritating the sh*t out of me

It's irrititating me even more. Cause I've got work visitors from Europe who can't go home, but instead of lounging by the pool at their hotel have decided to do more work and irritate me even more.

[phaleesy]

It's irrititating me even more. Cause I've got work visitors from Europe who can't go home, but instead of lounging by the pool at their hotel have decided to do more work and irritate me even more.

How silly! I would alternate between eating, resting, swimming and shopping if I was stranded in KL and Singapore.

[ADL_SQ]

My relatives are currently stranded in Singapore and were meant to be on SQ322 on Thursday evening. They spent that night in sleeping bags on the floor of the terminal. Fortunately last night (Friday, and tonight Saturday) SQ have put them up in the Pan Pacific Hotel in a nice room. We give SQ a hard time on here sometimes, and its nice to see they are helping people out. It's hardly their fault, so my relatives are satisfied ... for now. Their satisfaction may not last long however as they have been told they can't be guaranteed a flight to LHR until April 27th ....

[kapitan]

It is irritating the sh*t out of me as I really need to send some guys from Norway to Abu Dhabi on Monday but I am not sure if the air space will be open by then...

I have to send some people to KRS on Monday night, maybe they would have to stay a couple of days more then...

[prash]

well, my dad needs to rush to LHR tonight/tomo for a family emergency. he got booked on tonight's SQ 322 this morning and they actually issued the ticket and he did online check-in and all....only to see it announced a few hrs later (i.e just a while ago) that tonight's flight is cancelled...

this is probably something that really no airline can do anything about i suppose....i didnt want to press for details on what he's been told...but i dont suppose any of you have any good ideas to offer?

[Kiwi]

If really, really need to be in Europe urgently then best bet currently is to head for Southern Europe (FCO, ATH, IST). But then have the problem of getting to wherever needed - most long distance land-based public transport is apparently booked solid for days. Worst case may need to get a rental car in say Italy and drive from there.

[prash]

yea land transport's a huge problem. i think the eurostar is overbooked a few times over now. i think the past few days, it was still possible to fly into parts of northern england/scotland or even MAN i heard but well BBC says that it's now a uniform shut-down of airspace across the whole of the UK....

he does really need to get over to the UK. if anyone hears of any airport in the UK however far away from london that will open up to traffic, pls do a shout-out!! thanks

[mr_botak]

Perhaps the long distance ferries from Spain to UK? They go from Bilbao I think.

VFR flight remains possible in uncontrolled airspace assuming good weather.

[Kiwi]

he does really need to get over to the UK. if anyone hears of any airport in the UK however far away from london that will open up to traffic, pls do a shout-out!! thanks

Some airports have opened, for short periods, before being reclosed. Unfortunately that doesn't help in the slightest long-distance travellers because most airlines strangely aren't willing to fly halfway around the planet with but a hope the airspace and airport will be open by the time they get there.

[jhm]

With the talk above about SQ322, I don't know whether that's similar to the situation with (e.g.) BA HKG-LHR which from what I read on another board is pretty dire:

Our return flight we have been rebooked on, BA26 on Monday, is dependent on the BA25 going out tomorrow, which is looking increasingly questionable. And if that flight doesn't operate, the next flight with any seats on it from HKG-LHR is not for 2 weeks, on 1 May. One more cancellation from HKG and it's going to push back the date when seats are available well into May.