Tag Archives: airport shut-down

Wintry disruptions…again

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Revised on: 2011-03-22

Winter has come early to Europe this year. Very early. While it is not unusual to have a prolonged cold spell in January or February in this neck of the woods, as we did last year, having it in November is rather uncommon. Snow has covered much of Europe that hasn’t seen snow in winter for years,with widespread ramifications for all sorts of transport. Traffic all over Europe as been hit hard, and many rail services in the UK rail have simply been cancelled, the BBC reports. This has truly been the coldest November on record, at least in Norway. Whatever happened to global warming? Are cold winters the new and coming supply chain risk?

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Volcanic ash cloud – really a surprise?

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Revised on: 2015-09-12

Last week a volcanic eruption on Iceland took Europe’s civil aviation authorities by total surprise, prompting them to shut down air traffic over much of Europe for almost an entire week. An unprecedented event? Yes. Was it a surprise? Maybe Yes, maybe No. Should authorities have seen it coming? Yes. Then why wasn’t Europe prepared? On the operational level, among air traffic controllers, the awareness of the widespread impacts of a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland has been there for quite some time. They have indeed planned for it and there have been regular exercises.

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Volcanic Ash Cloud Day 5

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Revised on: 2015-09-12

Today is Day Five of the infamous Iceland volcanic ash cloud disruption. What just a week ago was a highly improbable scenario has settled in to become a daily routine…almost. Was this really one of these damned (Pardon my French) Black Swan Events…or was it a Predictable Surprise we should have been aware of? While it is fair to assume that volcanic eruptions are in the business continuity plans of most airlines, it is probably not so fair to assume that 5 days of sudden air traffic restrictions is in the business continuity plans of most companies reliant on frequent air travel. Perhaps it should have been. For sure it will be – from now on.

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Can we do without air traffic?

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Revised on: 2011-03-22

Travelers and businesses are waking up to a fourth day of no air traffic in Europe, and a fourth day of stranded air passengers seeking whatever means they can find to reach their destination, or reaching any place between where they are stuck and where they were supposed to go. As I said in my post yesterday, perhaps it’s time to re-learn the value of slow travel, and perhaps we don’t need to go anywhere as fast as possible or have our goods delivered in an instant. If this lasts on, it may lead to a change in our way of thinking. Seriously, what would happen if this supply chain disruption because of the volcanic ash cloud were to go on for a week, a month, a year?

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Business continuity 101

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Revised on: 2011-03-22

This is the 3rd day with severe transportation and thus supply chain disruptions all over Europe, due to the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, forcing travellers, cargo shippers and logistics providers to seek alternative solutions. In essence this is a very practical lesson in business continuity. Who would have thought that a volcano eruption in country that until recently and before the IceSave dispute did not make any headline news could create such havoc with widespread impacts? I certainly did not. Nonetheless, it is also a lesson in business creativity: German car rental company Sixt shows how.

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Today’s transport disruption: volcanoes

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Revised on: 2015-09-12

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. 

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Happy Holidelays!

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Revised on: 2015-09-11

The idea for this post came from a question on Linkedin: Holidays = Holi.delays? One thing is the usual Christmas/New Year slowdown. Add to that Global Warming suddenly giving the Copenhagen Agreement the cold shoulder, almost literally, causing  severe weather all over Europe, the UK, and the United States, leaving travellers stranded on the Eurostar trains under the English Channel, prompting a major rethink of Eurostar’s customer service. People were stuck at airports like Frankfurt, Germany or Luton, UK. It’s the same scene everywhere, chaos, chaos and chaos and lots of people desperate to get home for the holidays. But what about their Christmas presents?

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Airports – vital to supply chains?

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Revised on: 2011-03-29

Is the temporary shut-down of Bangkok’s two international airports important in a supply chain perspective? So far, the issue has been stranded tourists, maybe as many as 100000. Now it’s also becoming a major headache for the tourist industry and subsequently for Thailand’s national economy, loosing as much as $85 million per day, according to the BBC News. Not only that, air freight will also be impacted, but why is this important?
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Oslo airport shut-down…lessons learned?

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Revised on: 2015-09-09

Two days ago, Norway’s major airport, Oslo Gardermoen (OSL) practically shut down due to weather conditions, so-called “freezing fog”. The usual rate of 32 take-offs per hour was reduced to 10 (at the best) and tens of thousands of Christmas travelers were stranded for up to more than 24 hours on what is probably THE busiest day of the year. What acerbated things was how the airlines dealt with the situation: No information to waiting passengers, no food coupons or refreshments, endless lines in front of ticket counters…

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