I haven’t had a “In the news” post for quite some time, but now Norway and much of Northern Europe are facing a major supply chain disruption: The shutdown of all air traffic because of a volcano eruption on Iceland causing an ash cloud to drift into European airspace. The eruption under a glacier in the Eyjafjallajoekull area of Iceland is the second in Iceland in less than a month, but this is the first time it has affected air traffic beyond its own borders. While air is only one of the four modes of transportation for supply chains, it is probably the mode that has the most expensive implications because it is often used for high-value goods.
PLEASE NOTE:
This is my post from 2010.
For my post on the 2011 ash cloud crisis, see here: Another ash cloud crisis?
Significant impact
The unthinkable has happened and the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet has a nice map showing the impacted area or no-fly zone, see below. Not some small part of Europe this is. The Norwegian civil aviation authority Avinor has closed down all airports in Western and Northern Norway, meaning that close to 45 out of 46 airports are not operating this morning, leaving only Oslo, and two privately owned airports nearby as hubs to and from Norway. Even those are in danger of having to cease operations later today. That would cause ALL air traffic in Norway to grind to a halt. According to the latest news, by 10am this morning all planes must be on the ground.
Even the UK flights will be hit, according to the BBC News. And UK airline easyjet has posted a special notice on their website, advising travellers to check whether their flight is cancelled, as flights to and from he Northern UK are banned. CNN has picked up the story, too. Worst-case scenario: All UK airports shut down, too?
Track the cloud
An interactive map of the expected cloud movement can be found at guardian.co.uk:
It looks like Norway and large parts of Europe will have to struggle with flight restrictions for more than just today. Or even several years? I hope not.
iPad to the rescue
On the funny side, our prime minister is stuck in New York, since he cannot get home. The good news (for him) is that he can play around with his new iPad, and keep himself up to date on what’s happening back home, and effectively running the Norwegian government via the Internet.
Sandblast
The effect of volcanic ash on airplanes first came to attention in 1982, when British Airways flight 9, flew into an ash cloud over Indonesia, shutting down all four engines of the Boeing747 for 10 minutes while the crew, unaware of what could be wrong, frantically scrambled their emergency procedures. The incident has been famously featured on the National Geographic TV series Air Crash Investigation, showing how the cloud sandblasted the windscreen and landing light covers and clogged the engines. And frankly, yes, I would not want to fly in this:
Supply chain impact
Actually, some 120 thousand passengers will not be able to fly today. Obviously, this will have a major impact.With air being a major mode of transportation, not just for people, but also for high value or urgent goods and freight, this will have a significant impact on much of what will be going in he business world in Europe today.This screen capture of live air-traffic map from shows the extent: There is no air traffic over Northern Europe now at 0830 GMT.
It remains to be see how much impact this will have in the end, or whether this as usual has been hyped by the media reporting on it. The story has already made its way to India, and is likely to be the headline news of the day everywhere as the situation escalates.
Europe is locking down
Now Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Belgium may following suit, as reported by the Norwegian TV2 and the German magazine Der Spiegel, and German focus.de. EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation is monitoring the situation closely.
Volcanic Ash Advisory
The UK Met Office has issued this advisory for today until tomorrow:
Not a bright outlook for flying tomorrow…
Links (English)
- bbc.co.uk: Volcano ash hits UK flight plans
- cnn.com: European flights disrupted
- news.blogs.cnn.com: Iceland volcano disrupts European flights
- skynews.com: Iceland Volcano grounds UK flights
- guardian.co.uk: Icelandic eruption halts UK flights
- telegraph.co.uk: Volcanic ash from Iceland shuts UK airports
- eurocontrol.int: Press relase 15 April 2010
Links (German)
- spiegel.de: Vulkanasche stoppt Flüge
- focus.de: Asche behindert den deutschen Flugverkehr
Links (Norwegian)
- dagbladet.no: I dag regner det aske
- dagbladet.no: Her kommer vulkantåka
- dagbladet.no: Kan vare i flere år
- vg.no: Asken stopper alle fly i Norge
- vg.no: Stopper flytrafikken
- vg.no: Flytrafikken ER stoppet
- tv2nyhetene.no: Kan sandblåse vinduene
- tv2nyhetene.no: Flytrafikken lammes
- tv2nyhetene.no: Lufttrafikken i Norge stenges
- tv2nyhetene.no: Flykaos i Europa
- tv2nyhetene.no: Østlandet kan bli stengt
- tv2nyheten.no: Storbritannia hardt rammet
- aftenposten.no: Full stans i flytrafikken
- tu.no: Aske fra Island stopper flyene
Related
- husdal.com: Happy Holidelays
- husdal.com: Are airports important in supply chains?
