New Delhi: A fresh volcanic eruption in Iceland threatens to disrupt flights to western Europe in what would make for an eerie rerun of last April's travel travails. "Till 9pm, the ash cloud had spread up to 20,000 feet over Greenland, Iceland and UK. Britain has asked airlines to assess the situation before operating flights. As of now, it seems UK and other important European cities could get hit," said a senior official who attended a meeting called by aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi.
"We have asked Indian carriers to draw up alternate routes to and from North America over the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and also to western Europe. We will start work on getting them permission to have technical halts to pick up and drop passengers from Athens, Rome, Cairo and airports in unaffected European cities."
Airports such as Athens and Rome offer rail, road and sea connectivity to other parts of Europe, apart from a clear access to the Atlantic to fly to North America. When ash affects the usual polar route to North America and airspace over western Europe, vital hubs London, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam and Brussels get crippled.
25/05/11 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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