Grounded

A week ago, few people imagined that a volcano in Iceland could disrupt air travel worldwide. Here’s what the media had to say about the closure of European airspace and its consequences for the travel industry.

Cloud of uncertainty

In retrospect, The Daily Telegraph is sceptical about whether a complete ban on air travel was necessary.

When this extraordinary event began … [f]ew doubted the wisdom of grounding all planes. … The decision was based on a computer model operated by the Meteorological Office's Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre … However, the model is no more than that — a mathematical model. There was no empirical evidence to back up its findings. …

Scientific response

The Financial Times also urges a more scientific approach to the crisis and suggests that the EU should follow the American example by allowing individual airlines to decide if it is safe to fly.

…The travel industry is right … to criticize air traffic authorities and European governments for their slow and inflexible response as the crisis worsened … The blanket ban must be replaced urgently by more measured precautions, based on scientific knowledge of how much ash is actually in the atmosphere in specific places — and what damage such concentrations are likely to cause aircraft and their engines. …