Winds blowing ash to Europe will continue

Paris: This is the worst-ever air traffic dislocation in aviation history. Over 17,000 flights were cancelled in and out of Europe on Saturday, including all flights from most British, French and other major European hubs as the cloud of volcanic ash spread further south and east. This natural calamity is costing the aviation industry alone an estimated $200 million per day.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office said the winds blowing the volcanic ash south east to Europe and up into Scandinavia and Russia will continue in the same direction for at least two days and could go on until Wednesday. But scientists fear there could be more eruptions from the 5,466-foot volcano, Mount Eyjafjallajökull. The cloud of grit from the still-erupting volcano in Iceland began creeping as far south as Italy, forcing authorities to shut down airports in the northern part of that country.

Sigrun Hreinsdottir, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland, was quoted by news agencies as saying: “From what we've seen, it could erupt, pause for a few weeks, and then possibly erupt again. It could go on for months.”

The thousands of passengers remain stranded, unable to go to or worse, return from their holiday destinations. The situation in France has been particularly bad since the air traffic dislocation has been compounded by a rail strike which entered its 10th day today. Moreover, this being a holiday week end, when Easter vacation comes to an end for one of the educational zones but begins for another, there are hundreds of thousands of cars and buses on the road completely choking French highways.