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AIRLINES

Air Berlin reveals scope of volcano damage

The knock-on damage to airlines because of last month’s volcano ash cloud over Europe is becoming clear after Germany’s second biggest carrier, Air Berlin, on Thursday revealed a sharp drop in the number of seats it filled in April.

Air Berlin reveals scope of volcano damage
Photo: DPA

As well as having 550,000 fewer seats because of the 3,500 cancelled flights, the airline had also suffered from a drop in bookings because passengers were unsure whether they’d be able to fly, the airline announced.

The gradual resumption of flights across Europe led to prolonged uncertainty among passengers, the airline said, meaning they simply didn’t purchase flights, which cut the airline’s revenues as well as its “capacity utilisation” – the number of seats it fills.

Air Berlin flew about 2.1 million passengers in April – some 16.5 percent fewer than in April 2009. The capacity utilisation of its April flights dropped 3.7 percentage points to 72.6 percent compared with the previous year.

Aviation authorities closed much of Europe’s airspace for five days in April because of a dangerous layer of ash from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull that drifted right across the continent. According to a report on Wednesday, the volcano was still emitting ash, though not in the quantities it did at the peak trouble period.

The flight bans were finally lifted on April 21. German Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer hosted a meeting for airlines and aviation officials in Berlin later in the month to review ways to handle future problems with volcanic ash.

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LA PALMA

3,000 people in Spain’s La Palma forced indoors as lava reaches sea

Around 3,000 people were ordered to remain indoors on the Canary island of La Palma on Monday as lava from an erupting volcano reached the sea, risking the release of toxic gas.

3,000 people in Spain's La Palma forced indoors as lava reaches sea
The lava flow produced by the Cumbre Vieja volcano has reached the sea before. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)

The Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca) “ordered the confinement” of residents of coastal towns and villages near where the lava cascaded into the sea, sending large plumes of white smoke into the air, local emergency services said on Twitter.

The order was given due to “the possible release of gases that are harmful to health,” it added.

The order affects “around 3,000” people on the island, Miguel Angel Morcuende, technical director of Pevolca, told a news conference.

This is the third time that a lava flow has reached the Atlantic Ocean since the Cumbre Vieja volcano in the south of the island erupted on September 19th, covering large areas with ash.

All flights to and from La Palma’s airport were cancelled on Monday because of the ash, the third straight day that air travel has been disrupted.

And for the first time since the eruption started, local authorities advised residents of La Palma’s capital, Santa Cruz de La Palma in the east, to use high-filtration FFP2 face masks to protect themselves from emissions of dioxide and sulphur.

Most of the island, which is home to around 85,000 people, is so far unaffected by the eruption.

But parts of the western side where lava flows have slowly made their way to the sea face an uncertain future.

The molten rock has covered 1,065 hectares (2,630 acres) and destroyed nearly 1,500 buildings, according to Copernicus, the European Union’s satellite monitoring service.

Lava has destroyed schools, churches, health centres and irrigation infrastructure for the island’s banana plantations — a key source of jobs — as well as hundreds of homes.

Provisional damage was estimated on Friday at nearly €900 million ($1 billion), according to the regional government.

The island of La Palma, part of the Canary Islands archipelago off northwestern Africa, is experiencing its third eruption in a century, with
previous ones in 1949 and 1971.

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