Vol. 9 No. 48                                                            WE COVER THE WORLD                                                   Friday April 16, 2010 Extra

Air Cargo & The Volcano

      Ram Menen, Senior Division Vice President at Emirates SkyCargo (right) talks about the volcano that shut down much of the world airline schedules this way:
      “It is quite a challenging situation.
      “A bit like what happened post 9/11 in the U.S. where all the air space shut down . . . air traffic into and out of the northern part of Europe is paralyzed and that affects everyone.
      “We are monitoring the situation very closely and keeping our customers advised of the situation via regular communiqué and our website.
      “Let us hope this will not last long and life can get back to normal.”
      But Dave Brooks, President of American Airlines Cargo (left), never at a loss for words spoke of the exasperation that people around the world in air cargo feel about the roller coaster 2000s saying simply:
      "What's next, locusts?
      “All we can do is communicate, communicate, communicate.
      “Most customers know we can't control volcanoes; they just want to be kept in the loop."
      As the 40th annual celebration of Earth Day approaches on April 22, 2010, we have been given more than a gentle reminder from Mother Nature that we are still just guests on her planet. While most of us are going about the quotidian routine of our lives ­ driving to work, cursing the traffic, making dinner and laughing at our television sets, only miles above our carefree heads the air has grown toxic and thick with ash.
      A volcano near Iceland’s Eyiafjallajokull glacier has been spewing ash clouds into the air since Wednesday, bringing air traffic in parts of northern and western Europe to a standstill. Some volcanists are now saying that disruptions to air traffic could last for several months due to the very fine composition of ash particles, which are miniscule enough to invade all parts of an airplane and so lightweight they tend to remain in the air for up to two to three years before dispersing.
      Not since the tragedy of 9/11 has the commercial airline business taken such an unexpected and widespread hit.
      The groundings and diversions come at a time when airlines are beginning to report positive results with business slowly returning."I would expect this shutdown to last a couple of days," said Prof Bill McGuire of the Aion Benfield UCL Hazard Research Center.
      "But if the eruption continues—and continues to produce ash—we could see repeated disruption over six months or so."
      Other experts think that future threats from the volcano to Europe aviation will be occasional.
      "What has happened overnight is that the volcano has . . . exploded quite a lot more violently and put ash very high up," said Matthew Watson, lecturer on geophysical natural hazards at Bristol University told CNBC.
      "If it does go back to what it's doing before—and I don't have a crystal ball but I would think that is quite likely—then essentially what you are doing is waiting for the airspace to clear."
      The southeast drifting cloud, floating roughly between 6,000 and 8,000 meters above surface forced national civil aviation authorities to close many parts of the European airspace, mainly above Scandinavia, the UK, the Benelux countries, France, Germany, the Baltic States, and Poland.
      A large number of airports were shut down Thursday, among them all British airports, Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin, Copenhagen and Brussels. Eurocontrol reported the skipping of about 4,000 flights on Thursday.
      Today some 28,000 flights are said to have been cut to about 11,000 with long-haul flights diverted, returned to their departure cities, or totally cancelled leaving hundreds of thousand passengers stranded and huge cargo tonnage on the ground.
      Speaking of air cargo right now Europe is scrambling to get as much long haul freight as possible on the road for delivery to offset loss of airlift.
      Most important thing when something like this happens is for everyone to stay in touch with each other so everyone knows what to expect
      Lufthansa Cargo spokesman Nils Haupt (left) said:   “We are in meetings every four hours with our crises team to update the situation and expect to be back in operation by 2000 hrs. Saturday April 17.
      “Of course this is our estimate based on best information available.
      “Most important thing when something like this happens is for everyone to stay in touch with each other so everyone knows what to expect.
      “Right now we have just one MD11 freighter on the ground here in Frankfurt with the rest of the fleet standing by at airports all over the world.
      “For someone who has kero in the veins, no aircraft movement at Frankfurt Main today is quite strange and unnatural.”
      Neel Shah, (right) VP Cargo, Delta Airlines told Air Cargo News FlyingTypers:
      “Since DL is the number one carrier across the Atlantic, this situation has had a tremendous impact.
      “We have already cancelled 65 flights between yesterday and this morning and that number is climbing every hour as more European Airspace is closed as a result of the ash cloud.
      “Our flights are booked close to capacity for both passengers and cargo so it is going to be challenging recovering from the past couple of days.
      “It is our hope that we can get back to a normal operation by Sunday but it’s way too early to tell if that will be possible.”
      “Volcanic ash is indeed, Kryptonite for air cargo.” Said Tony Randgaard, spokesperson for Continental Airlines Cargo.
      “Like everyone else, we are watching the satellite maps and wondering what Mother Nature has in store for today.
      “On Thursday, Continental was forced to cancel 30 flights and unable to operate into Scandinavia or the UK.
      “We suggest that customers keep in touch with our Cargo Customer Service Center for the latest news.”
      Typically air cargo people are meeting strategizing and working around the clock to keep the goods moving.
      “Capacity restraints are words of the day,” said one big carrier of mail who interlines outbound from USA.
      “But we are dealing with restraints by moving cargo over the road to airports other than major gateways here (LAX/JFK) while watching every minute to be first to take advantage of the moment when LHR and other EU gateways return.”
      But no amount of diverting or other attempts can get into closed airspaces.
      Platinum Cargo, a big U.S.- based GSA is typical of scores of notices flooding emails right now to customers, advising business as usual will be unusual until the airports get back online.
      Eurocontrol, the 38-states agency coordinating European air traffic, spoke of an “unprecedented situation” having so much airspace and airports closed. With ongoing volcanic activity and southeastern air drift, European air traffic could be disrupted for longer. Meteorologists hesitate giving any predictions because of the uncertain geothermic activity and atmospheric situation.
      The Mid-Atlantic Ridge divides the isle of Iceland where the European and North American plates drift apart causing frequent volcanic eruptions. “Ashes spouted from volcanoes represent a significant threat to air traffic,” warned Eurocontrol in a Thursday-issued statement.
      The drifting particles of silicate can penetrate and severely damage turbines bringing them to a halt.
      This occurred in 1989 when a KLM Boeing 747 en route from Amsterdam to Alaska flew across an ash cloud spewed in the atmosphere by Mount Redoubt of the Aleutian Range.
      All four engines lost power, which were restored shortly, averting the aircraft from crashing.
      A similar incident happened in 1982 to a British Airways B747 flying from Great Britain to New Zealand hitting volcanic ashes coming from Indonesian volcano Mount Gulanggung.
      All four engines failed but were restarted by the cockpit crew after they managed to glide the aircraft far enough to escape the ash cloud.
      Volcanoes may seem exotic, but there are plenty of them right here in USA. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), there are 67 active or potentially active volcanoes in the United States: seven in Hawaii, 16 in mainland Alaska, 24 in the Aleutian Islands, five each in Washington and Oregon, one each in Arizona and New Mexico, and two in Idaho, including Yellowstone National Park, which includes parts of Montana and Wyoming.
      Interestingly, ScienceCentral.com reports,” more than twenty years after Mount St. Helens in Washington state USA erupted, scientists still can't predict eruptions precisely.
      “But they are better equipped to help determine when it’s time to evacuate an area, in a way that's safer for the scientists, too, says C. Dan Miller, chief of the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program at the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory.
      “Our strategy now is to take out a bunch of monitor equipment, install these stations all over the volcano, and then go back to a safe place and watch the data come in, in real time," says Miller.
      "When one looks at these kinds of natural phenomena, volcanic eruption, you always think of the impact on human lives," Bernard Chouet, a seismologist at the USGS, told the U.S. Public Broadcasting television science program NOVA.
      "The ultimate quest is to understand enough about the activity in that volcano to be in a position to make a prediction, predict the occurrence of an eruption."
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