April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Volcanic eruptions in Iceland which this week caused thousands of flights to be canceled may continue for months, disrupting European air traffic as ash is sporadically blown above the continent’s busiest airports.
More than 20,000 flights have been grounded after an April 14 eruption of the 1,666-meter (5,466-foot) Eyjafjallajökull volcano sent dust billowing across thousands of miles of European airspace and closed terminals from Dublin to Moscow.“It could go on for months,” Sigrun Hreinsdottir, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland, said in a telephone interview from Reykjavik. “From what we’ve seen, it could erupt, pause for a few weeks, and then possibly erupt again.”
Canceled flights are costing carriers about $200 million a day, the International Air Transport Association estimates. Restrictions over most of the U.K. will remain in place until 1 a.m. at least tomorrow, shutting London Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, flight-control authority National Air Traffic Services said today.
Poor Iceland, between their financial meltdown and this its been quite a year.
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