The thing that has surprised me with all these Airplane groundings is the number of companies who say they could go out of business. One of the smaller firms has said they will be effectively bankrupt if they can't start flying on Monday. I just heard Easyjet on the radio saying they need to fly at least 2 weeks in the next month to avoid "financial instability".
I know the aviation industry is struggling but didn't realise they were that close to the wire.
It's partly ironic; I expect if there had been a terror attack grounded planes would be accepted, but people on the news last night seemed actually cross this was affecting them....
One guy even said (and I swear this is a quote): "but it looks clear out there, it's not at ground level is it?"
doh.
Upset, sure, but (for once) pretty much upset at the right target: ms. Nature.
Dang, if only God hadn't been running MS Nature we'd have been saved all this kerfuffle!
An airplane was flying from LA to New York. About an hour into the flight, the pilot announced, "We have lost an engine, but don't worry, there are three left. However, instead of 5 hours it will take 7 hours to get to New York."
A little later, the pilot announced, "A second engine failed, but we still have two left. However, it will take 10 hours to get to New York."
Somewhat later, the pilot again came on the intercom and announced, "A third engine had died. Never fear, because the plane can fly on a single engine. However, it will now take 18 hours to get to new York."
At this point, one passenger said, "Gee, I hope we don't lose that last engine, or we'll be up here forever!"
This time, we could dump that stuff out over the Atlantic.
It's not just their own regulations they'd have to break, it would be the terms of sale of the aircraft (Boeing sayeth "thou shalt not fly the big shiny bird through clouds of volcanic ash") and their insurers, who say much the same thing.
If this eruption is going to last more than a few days more, keeping some of the worlds most busy hubs offline, there will be serious effort put into making flying under these conditions safe. An obvious part of the solution could be radars or lidars that can reliably see where this stuff is, and how dense, so flights can avoid it. Another could be coating for windows that can withstand the "sandblasting".
AFAIK it's not just the windows that are the problem. The volcanic ash can melt in the heat of the engine and essentially turn to glass, taking the engines out. Sounds nasty to fly through in every way.
Also aviation radars see clouds by the moisture in them - they can't see ash because it's dry.
Also, what about bailouts? We had money for banks - why wouldn't we sponsor grounded planes?
The airline industry was bailed out in 2001 and probably will be again if this goes on. I believe an economist showed that the industry as a whole (since it started) has lost money.
US airlines are never profitable because the more money they lose apparently the more willing people are to bail them out