Rush to clear backlog as Europe skies reopen

About two-thirds of scheduled departures and half of arriving flights were operating at Heathrow Airport outside of London. At Frankfurt International Airport,about half as many flights as normal were taking off and landing.

A spokeswoman said that airlines had added 90 supplementary flights in and out of Heathrow since Britain reopened its airspace opened late on Tuesday.

But flights were not resuming as quickly at other British regional airports. Only 10 per cent of scheduled flights at Edinburgh operated on Wednesday morning,a figure that was expected to rise to 50 percent by the evening. In Aberdeen,Scotland,only 30 per cent of morning flights operated,while 65 per cent were expected from 5 pm.

The International Air Transport Association said on Wednesday that the crisis had cost airlines more than $1.7 billion in lost revenue through Tuesday. At its worst,the association said,“the crisis impacted 29 per cent of global aviation and affected 1.2 million passengers a day”.

Aéroports de Paris,which operates Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports,said all intercontinental arrivals and departures and 75 per cent of European and domestic flights were expected to operate on Wednesday.

British Airways planned to operate all of its intercontinental services from London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports on Wednesday,although many of its domestic and European flights remained canceled until afternoon.

Britain’s National Air Traffic Service said it had handled roughly 130 flights in the airspace over England and Wales between 1 am and 7 am on Wednesday and 35 flights in Scotland and Northern Ireland. British airspace would be largely open on Wednesday,except for parts of Scotland with a “dense concentration” of volcanic ash.

With their call centres jammed by customers trying to rebook flights,some airlines found innovative ways to speed the process. The Dutch carrier KLM advised passengers on its website that rebooking could be done via Twitter or on its Facebook page.

According to forecasts by Britain’s Met Office meteorological agency and the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in London,winds were expected to continue blowing the highest concentrations of ash westward toward the northeast coast of Canada. By midnight,the cloud was expected to be largely clear of Europe.

The reopening of European airspace was certain to be accompanied by a potentially acrimonious debate about the indecision of governments in handling the crisis.

The European Commission said on Wednesday that a single authority should be allowed to override national sovereignty over airspace in the EU to determine whether aircraft can fly safely through volcanic ash. There already are plans for an overarching authority to govern Europe’s “Single Sky” by 2012. But confusion among the 27 EU countries in dealing with the volcanic ash had created a new impetus to “fast track” the proposal,a spokeswoman for the commission said.

“The view of the European Commission is that it should be binding,” said Helen Kearns,the spokeswoman for the EU’s Transport Commissioner,Siim Kallas.

IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani on Wednesday repeated industry calls for European governments and the EU to find ways to compensate the industry for its losses.

“I am the first one to say that this industry does not want or need bailouts,” Bisignani said. “But this crisis… is an extraordinary situation exaggerated with a poor decision-making process.”