Saudi passengers scheduled to return to the Kingdom from London and other European destinations remain grounded at various airports, according to airlines and travel agencies who were monitoring the situation despite Friday being their weekly holiday.
“I made my reservation one month ago. Now everything is cancelled,” said Fatima Al-Shebani, a 27-year-old Jeddah resident who was supposed to travel with her family on a seven days trip. “I was looking forward to this trip, but I am glad it happened now before I traveled so I would not be stuck in the UK like other passengers.”
Haneen Al-Yousef was supposed to travel to Vienna in Austria with her husband on Thursday night from Dubai.
“At first we thought it was something minor, but then when we were following the news, we saw how dangerous it was,” she said. “My husband and I decided to cancel the flight last minute and changed our plans. We will stay in Jeddah and hopefully things will be over soon.”
Most of the other Western airlines including Air France and Lufthansa said they had no information when the European airports would become operational again.
“We are monitoring the situation and advising our passengers accordingly,” a Lufthansa source said.
Some leisure travelers, especially students and teachers on spring break, scheduled to leave on or after Thursday have changed their travel plans. “Some others who were scheduled to leave for destinations like London, Paris, Vienna and Frankfurt have not been able to go as there are no Europe-bound flights,” said one travel agent. “If they don’t get a flight by Saturday night, they may not go at all.”
Some passengers who were planning for travel to Europe this week have now decided to postpone their journey. “My father had a confirmed booking for London for Friday by a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight, but now he cannot travel,” said Khaled Badawood, whose family has business links with the UK, France and Germany.
Muhsin Abdul Rahman, who is now vacationing in London, said in a phone interview that he fears that he might not be able to come back to the Kingdom on time if the situation continues. “I am planning to go back next Friday. The last thing I want is to be stranded at the airport,” he said. “If the situation continues, then I will be left with no choice but to take the Channel Tunnel to France and then drive all the way to Italy to catch a plane to Saudi Arabia, if the airport is not yet closed.”
Not only vacationers’ plans have been put on hold, those who came for Umrah and wish to go back to their homelands are stuck in Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed Nakhuda from Preston, UK, came for Umrah with a group of 28 people from the UK and was supposed to leave Friday morning. “In the beginning the airport staff kept on delaying the flight without giving us any information or updates. “We couldn’t find any hotel in Jeddah because they are all fully booked for the spring holidays. We went to Dallah Hotel where we slept on the lobby’s floor for a couple of hours until Saudi Arabian Airlines managed to find us a hotel reservation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Air France’s early Saturday flight to Paris was canceled and the flight from Riyadh was expected to be severely delayed.
Arriving and departing flights at Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports in Paris have been canceled until Saturday 8 a.m., Air France’s corporate office stated from France on Thursday night. It has advised its passengers not to report to the airport. Passengers whose flights have been canceled will be able to postpone their trip depending on availability, or request a refund. For passengers who had already arrived at Charles de Gaulle and who had a connecting flight, over 2,000 hotel rooms had been booked for Friday. Meal vouchers have also been made available.
Polish officials worried that the ash cloud could threaten the arrival of world leaders for Sunday’s state funeral for President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria in the southern city of Krakow.
The air traffic agency Eurocontrol said almost two-thirds of Europe's flights were canceled Friday, as air space remained largely closed in Britain and across large chunks of north and central Europe.
"The skies are totally empty over northern Europe," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of Eurocontrol, adding "there will be some significant disruption of European air traffic tomorrow." The agency said about 16,000 of Europe's usual 28,000 daily flights were canceled Friday -- twice as many as were canceled a day earlier. Only about 120 trans-Atlantic flights reached European airports compared to 300 on a normal day, and about 60 flights between Asia and Europe were canceled.
The International Air Transport Association said the volcano was costing the industry at least $200 million a day.
In the major cities, travel chaos reigned. Extra trains were put on in Amsterdam and lines to buy train tickets were so long that the rail company handed out free coffee.
Train operator Eurostar said it was carrying almost 50,000 passengers between London, Paris and Brussels. Thalys, a high-speed venture of the French, Belgian and German rail companies, was allowing passengers to buy tickets even if trains were fully booked.
London taxi company Addison Lee said it had received requests for journeys to cities as far away as Paris, Milan, Amsterdam and Zurich.
More floods from melting waters are expected as long as the volcano keeps erupting - and in 1821, the same volcano managed to erupt for more than a year.
Iceland, a nation of 320,000 people, sits on a large volcanic hot spot in the Atlantic's mid-oceanic ridge and has a history of devastating eruptions. One of the worst was the 1783 eruption of the Laki volcano, which spewed a toxic cloud over Europe, killing tens of thousands.
- With input from agencies
