UPDATE
mirates Air Pres:"Significant" Money Lost On Disruptions
18 April 2010
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DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Emirates Airline, Dubai's flagship carrier, has lost a "significant amount of money" after it canceled flights to the U.K. and most other European destinations due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland preventing aircraft movement, the company's president said Sunday.
"About 30 of our aircraft are grounded which represents about a fifth of our fleet. I would estimate that somewhere in the region of 20% of airline production has been affected by this," Clark told Zawya Dow Jones.
"The affects are devastating at a time when Emirates was expecting seat factors of about 87% due to the Easter holidays. If it had happened in May or June it wouldn't have been so bad," Clark added.
Emirates said Saturday that to date, over 40,000 Emirates passengers have been impacted by the closure of airspace in the U.K. and most of Europe.
Emirates' Clark said airport closures in Europe are also impacting the carrier's Asian seat loads as "a lot of our traffic transits from Europe through Dubai."
Iceland's Eyjafjoell volcano erupted Wednesday, sending ash drifting toward Europe at an altitude of about eight to 10 kilometers (five to six miles).
Europe's three biggest airports--Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt--were closed Saturday, leaving passengers stranded across the world as a global flight backlog built up.
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways said it had canceled all flights to the U.K., Ireland, Europe and Russia until further notice. Qatar Airways meanwhile scrapped another 17 European flights Sunday and said services are likely to remain disrupted until airports across Europe reopen.
An Oman Air spokesperson, in an emailed statement, said the situation that has prevailed over the past two days hasn't changed.
"We are in touch with our stranded passengers and are keeping them updated on the status of flights and airports," the spokesperson added.
-By Stefania Bianchi and Tim Falconer; +9714 446-1690;
[email protected]