Ryanair fined for not helping stranded passengers

by Sean McLachlan on

Back during April’s travel mess, the European Union warned Ryanair because Ryanair refused to compensate stranded passengers for lodging and food. The EU told them they were legally required to, and the budget carrier backed down.

Here comes the sequel to that story.

Italy has slapped Ryanair with a three million euro ($3.75 million) fine for not providing 178 people at Rome’s Ciampino airport with help required under EU Regulation 261. This includes lodging and food that the airline was supposed to give stranded passengers.

Ryanair is denying the charges so this will probably end up in court. Ryanair will almost certainly bring up a provision in the regulation stating that, “obligations on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.”

Italian officials, however, have pointed out that most other airlines offered food and hotels for the duration of the shutdown. Plus Ryanair’s own website says that you’re covered by EU261, “If your flight is cancelled, for whatever reason.”

Considering that an estimated eight million passengers were affected by April’s volcanic eruption, this is probably only the first in a long series of legal actions.

Here comes the ash again!

by Sean McLachlan on

Airports in parts of Northern Ireland have shut down due to the latest ash cloud from Iceland’s infamous Eyjafjallajökull volcano. The main airport affected is Belfast, which will remain closed until at least 1pm local time. Ronaldsway airport on the Isle of Man is also closed.

A large cloud of ash is headed southeast from Iceland and is predicted to affect airports across the UK and the Republic of Ireland on Monday and Tuesday. If winds continue as predicted, the cloud should be out of UK airspace by Wednesday, but of course the winds could always shift back towards the UK and with the eruption showing no signs of abating, travelers could be in for another major headache.

The UK’s Met Office has produced a handy and somewhat depressing series of charts predicting the movement of the ash cloud.

Meanwhile, vulcanologist Dr. Dougal Jerram from Durham University said Eyjafjallajökull could keep erupting for several months. Vulcanologists are also worried about Eyjafjallajökull’s sister volcano Katla, which is much bigger than Eyjafjallajökull and usually erupts within a year of Eyjafjallajökull erupting.

Travelers should have figured out by this point to check ahead before going to the airport, but it bears repeating.

Eyjafjallajokull still spewing – exclusive pics from a trans-Atlantic flight

by Annie Scott on

I was taxiing from my gate in Geneva, Switzerland on SWISS Air Lines when I was informed that due to some volcanic burps from the bane of Europe, Eyjafjallajokull, our flight to JFK would be an hour longer, as we would have to fly north of the Iceland ash cloud. The other passengers and I might have been disappointed if the pilot hadn’t informed us that we’d be able to see the active volcano erupting from the air. What a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

A few hours into the flight, the fancy individual video systems on our newly tricked-out SWISS A330-300 were paused and passengers, regardless of class assignment, bounded to the left side of the plane with cameras. I bogarted business class to get the closer shot above.

Eyjafjallajokull appeared to be spewing an ash cloud about twice as long as Iceland:

… And it’s nasty-looking stuff. My condolences if your flight was canceled, but you didn’t want to be flying through that. Yikes.

Check out more of Gadling’s ash cloud/volcano/Eyjafjallajokull coverage here.

My flights to and from Switzerland on SWISS Air Lines were sponsored by Switzerland Tourism, but the ideas and opinions expressed in this article are 100 percent my own.

The perfect souvenir for volcano stranded passengers – a jar of ash

by Scott Carmichael on

Some people get their friends an “I’m with stupid” t-shirt, others may bring back a horrible sombrero – but if you’ve been impacted by the European aviation disruption caused by the Icelandic Eyjafjallajökull volcano, how about five and a half ounces of pure Icelandic volcanic ash?

Think of this little jar as a reminder of how terrible your trip back home was, or how long you had to sleep on the airport floor. Or if you missed an important meeting, present a jar of it to your boss as “evidence”.

Sadly, the Icelandic merchants behind this souvenir charge a whopping $38 for filling a cheap glass jar with ash, plus an additional $36 for shipping.

There is an upside though – all proceeds from the sale of this ash souvenir will benefit ICESAR – the Icelandic Search and Rescue organization in charge of safety in regions impacted by the volcano.

For this Icelandic souvenir (or to see the assortment of other Icelandic products), click here to visit Nammi.is.

Vulcanologists worry about second Icelandic volcano

by Sean McLachlan on

Move over Eyjafjallajökull, there’s a bigger volcano in Iceland.

While the unpronounceable volcano’s reputation has been made as a holiday wrecker, another volcano named Katla may cause even more trouble. Vulcanologists warn that this bigger volcano near Eyjafjallajökull may cause even more trouble. Katla erupts more frequently, about once every fifty years, but hasn’t had an eruption since 1918. Generally, the longer the period between eruptions, the bigger the eruption. Add to this the fact that Katla usually goes off within a year of when Eyjafjallajökull starts erupting, and there’s some serious cause for worry.

Vulcanologists are keeping an eye on Katla and report no evidence of an impending eruption, but they warn that trying to study magma hidden deep within the bowels of the Earth is hardly an exact science. They only knew that Eyjafjallajökull was going to erupt a few hours ahead of time. Katla’s magma chamber is ten times the size of Eyjafjallajökull’s, and the volcano’s cap has lots of ice on top of it, so any eruption could be a real problem for air travel.

With Eyjafjallajökull, the slump in the travel industry, and impending strikes at British Airways, Katla may very well be the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse for European air travel.