Isn't there some other alternatives for the major EU airlines to use their aircraft that is stuck in other countries to fly to other hubs/airports, just to get the pax that seriously needs to get to destinations on to european soil and moving? Ie:
BA should have quite few aircraft stuck elsewhere in the world (I think there is 5 in South Africa alone), can't they sort of fly to MAD at least?
LH to MXP or ZRH
AF/KLM to southern France (Nice, Marseille) (A380 stuck in JNB as well).
Would other carriers with major connecting hubs to Europe allow pax to reroute to southern european destinations...ie: say an EK ticket JNB-DXB-LHR change to JNB-DXB-ROM ...at least with pax from Asia/Oceania/Africa...this could be done by EK, QR, EY, TK, ET, KQ etc.
Would airlines like TP and IB be doing better business at the moment, with pax just trying to get to european soil at least and travel from there onwards by train/bus/taxi/transfer. Would other carriers be allowed to increase flights to these destinations not affected (yet) like MAD, LIS, ROM, NCE?