Volcano costing EK "Significant Money". There goes any pay rise...
 

UPDATE:Emirates Air Pres:"Significant" Money Lost On Disruptions

18 April 2010
(Adds details, background.)
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]

We weren't getting one anyway.

agreed, nowt for this year!

That's a joke - it has been impossible to phone Emirates UK for four days on the trot. They leave you to a recorded message saying they can't take your call.

Welcome to my World
 

Maybe now they will feel some of what we feel in losing money each day and not being able to do anything about it. Welcome to my world!

John Miller:

There's hardly any point in calling ANY airline for information on getting out of the UK as long as there is a closure of the air space.

In defence of EK I have to say that today a team of 3 of my staff who had been stranded in DXB for three days were flown to Rome (instead of Frankfurt), so on this evidence, they are doing their utmost.

Al Fakhem , i do not agree with you.
In case of any problems with any airline , you are calling it because she is the one who is taking care about your flight and normally about you ...commercial care.
Is it commercial to leave a message saying that they can't take your call , sorry , i do not think so ...
ek is loosing even passengers ...?
guys at ek , they get a good reason to sc.w you ...now !
Al Fakhem , how your staff are going from Rome to Frankfurt ???
"they are doing their utmost" not to bring the passengers to the right destination ...

Matmax - you really think that the airlines have big enough call centres to deal with such an unprecedented crisis as this??? Just how many staff do you need to answer several thousand 'phone calls...

Answers on a postcard please:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:you clever grease monkey you:hmm:

Employees stranded overseas can lose salaries
 

people on leave it reads...please dont try to make this situation any worse than it is...I am sure all crew that are stranded will be continued to be paid

Ash cloud
 

Not wanting to suggest that I would fly thru an ash cloud at all, but did the rocket scientists running this goat @#ck think about flying UNDER it...the ash cloud from what I understand sits in the stratosphere between around 20 - 30000'?Nicely caught in jetstreams until it decends down the line.

So why not fly under it?

In fact has any one noticed that all the pictures of the closed airports looks cavok to me??

so just fly under or around it - so what if it costs more gas/reduced payload..jets dont have to fly at 35000'!!

As long as you can get over the hills etc what is wrong with flying at low level ie sub 20k ... oh ....thats right too much fuel.

If would be called a low- hi - low mission in a previous life...

If I am wrong about it then I retract the idea, but that is what the meteorologists say... I see that Qantas wont back down with their cancelled flights - on the news in OZ today someone asked why they did not get their pax to DXB and then at least they could maybe get closer to destinations... to wit spokesman replied " we dont fly to DXB'... sounds like some flexibility would have been a good idea to mitigate the losses.. but I guess that once folks commence the journey the liability for hotels etc commences whereas, if they stay at home the losses are mitigated...

of course I dont quite get how they think they have lost so much money... most folks have already paid for their tickets a long time ago and it will just mean better seat loads when flying commences.. and they can ...as usual gouge the passengers more... or add a volcano surcharge!!

WJA

By taxiing along the highways, I suppose. :hmm:

Well, you're clever, aren't you! :D Congratulations for noticing. Did you expect to see a black sky or something?
The fact that you can look through it to see the blue sky doesn't mean there's nothing there - as has just been shown by test flights (with test results) and military aircraft (with damage on their engines).
The ash particles are everywhere in various concentrations of density. As you fly through, the engines will keep on ingesting them like vacuum-cleaners.

When you have shallow ground fog over an airport, you can also see the runway quite clearly while looking down from above. But as you descend to a lower altitude into the fog, you won't see a thing ahead. It's the same principle.

Well, you're obviously not a pilot.
If you chose a less agressive tone, you'd be more likely to get an explanation.

Think he might be a pilot
Looks like you have annoyed some one there Woodja.

MATMAX:

I disagree with you- there's a web site, and I used it myself to change my own itinerary away from Europe. Anyway, my team flew by EK from Dubai to Rome, got themselves a Europcar vehicle with German plates and drove home.

Ash clouds
 

Dudes - as I said not entirely sure about the intensity and level of the ash clouds but from what I got off various sites was that they ash was mainly in the 20 - 30k levels. And then descended somewhere over northern UK.

My point - and sorry if that annoyed some folks out there - is that there are always alternatives but many modern brains seem locked inside boxes.

I note on other sites that some airlines are doing their own tests etc to gauge the ash cloud - and looking at VFR flights to get around it... not sure if that will work but hey - human inventiveness is pretty good sometimes....

What I was trying to indicate was that there might be a way out of the UK /EU airspace below the cloud PERHAPs that was not looked at...maybe?? like go out low and tech stop once outside the cloud and then continue.

I see QF have now stopped all their flights to UK until Friday now... they could have got them at least as far as Athens, Istanbul, Moscow etc etc but I dont run an airline so maybe too hard... easier to blame volcanoes..

as all airlines affected then maybe the logic is that this will push some of the weaker ones ( maybe BA ?? ) over the edge and allow them to clean up after the cloud passes...?? just a thought..

Clever, or not a pilot comment.....??

- sorry gotta BSc, almost an MBA and 35 years in aviation with 13 000 hours on both B777 and A340s - so in the industry .... but agree I have never hit a volcano and dont want to....

Of course the same rocket scientists that built the wonderful and successful mac book for example - managed to screw that up - ever tried to put a printer and a 3G wireless unit into the two co - located USB ports.... ??

So what's my point .... folks dont know what they dont know....until someone tells them....sorry if I ticked any one off not personal comments!

WJA

Hey WC , i am still waiting for your answers from a previous post...
FYI , there is a lot of call centres in North Africa ...
Do you have something against also the guys you call "grease monkey" ?
I am quite sure that you are not even able to do a grease servicing properly ...
I am suggesting you to have a look on my qualifications and think about the experience that i get (more than 20 years)... i do not have any trouble to find a job when i want ...
Now if i were you i will be careful , because i still get a lot of friends in ek engg...and everywhere in the world as i am a friendly guy and not a selfish basic pilot like you...and i will let them know your feelings about Engineers.
Sorry Al Fakhem , do you have an access to internet everywhere at any time ?
"got themselves a Europcar vehicle with German plates and drove home" :
Have they been help by ek staff about it ?
ek is paying for it ?
how many hours from Rome to Frankfurt by car ?

Who's "WC"?

Are grease monkeys usually this sensitive or have you forgotten to take your pills again?

Away from the monkeys and back to the thread:

In Europe airlines start crying for state compensation due to their ash induced losses.
Was just wondering if this could help EK as well .... but then it hit me: In Dubai it's the other way around!
(Guess we also financed her heighness' new 10 million dirham horse, you're very welcome!)

So brace for nothing this year.

MM - I suppose that's your simple french humour heh? WC for WK you little ripper:}:}

What answers are you still looking for from a previous post?

Grease monkeys are grease monkeys the world over - doesn't mean I disrespect them at all. You are just a rather sensitive kind of chappie:rolleyes: Why would I wish to dirty my hands with a 'grease servicing' when you can do it for me:D:D
Oh yeah - how's your flying:E:E

Anyway - I'll be really careful of you now, with all of your friends in EK eng.. Mummy I'm scared:{:{ Just joking - when I think back to the Battle of Agincourt, what wonderful days:ok::ok:

MADMAX:

Everything OK in your head? Volcanic eruption is an Act of God - so the airlines are not at fault.

EK did not help my team get a rental car - they simply used the Europcar web site.

Internet access is available from most mobile phones today - if not, go to an internet cafe.

I wonder whether you know how to use the toilet without any help from others.