It's not a matter of whether or not the drivers would be prepared to drive during those times when the UK is within the black or red zones, the overriding factor is the reaction from the engine manufacturers and other similarly interested parties, when they are telling operators that warranties etc will not be valid.
Even though Nige owns his own aircraft, I would have thought that if the engine manufacturers sent him a directive voiding any warranties or contracts if he flies during these periods of ash, and he does, he is clearly 'considerably richer than us oiks', or has no maintenance contract.
When it's a clear blue sky, I for one would be happy to take the ship out. I think most of us can see what's going on. If there is no health risk, and I'm sure a human lung is more delicate than a turbine engine, what's the worry? However, when the company tells me that I can't go out because of an ambiguous directive from these 'interested parties', which would mean a large cost a few months down the line (and you know that any damage found, whatever the true cause, will be tech log investigated in an attempt to relate it to flight within the ash zone), I don't go. Simples.
I'm sure that the operator and crew of the S76 that was to-ing and fro-ing the other week, when everyone else was stuck on the ground, realised what was happening.
It seems that the shot at discrediting the aviation industry with a cheap yet disastrous attempt to show how a clear sky policy is the way ahead, (that was raising its head once more at the beginning of all this), has hit nothing but a few 'Green' feet.
Iceland volcano causes fall in carbon emissions as eruption grounds aircraft | Environment | guardian.co.uk
According to the Environmental Transport Association, by the end of today (21 April) the flight ban will have prevented the emission of some 2.8m tonnes of carbon dioxide since the first flights were grounded.
Worldwide, the US Geological Survey says volcanoes produce about 200m tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
I wish they would get things right first time round.
• This article was changed on 21 April. It originally said the volcano has emitted about 15,000 tonnes of CO2 each day. Information is Beautiful has since corrected this figure to 150,000; we have updated our article to reflect this.
Some research mistake, or fiddling the figures and getting caught out?