The cloud of the Icelandic volcano forced to close again for eight hours Asturias Airport
Posted on April 19, 2010 by admin
Icelandic volcano ashes, which damage the engines of the aircraft, returned yesterday to lead, for the second consecutive day, closing the airport of Asturias, together with fifteen others on the Cantabrian coast, the eastern mainland and Balearic Islands. If the Saturday closure lasted only an hour yesterday, Sunday, Santiago del Monte terminal remained inoperative eight hours, from seven-thirty in the morning until half past three o’clock, but the day the first plane did not land Asturias until seven o’clock. That was the general trend in all the airports affected by the cloud, which were returned to normal gradually over the afternoon, except for connections to Europe, which are interrupted.
The volcanic cloud drew over Spain yesterday morning a line that started in Asturias and ran the Peninsula up to Palma, the same airspace as Spanish Airports and Air Navigation (AENA) decided to close for safety reasons. Early in the afternoon it began to move toward the east and gave the order to reopen the airport, with the warning not to be trusted because the cloud, which remains closed much of European airspace is constantly evolving.
With this background, chaos reigned one day in air traffic, and now they’re four. Across Europe, 20,000 flights were canceled, as it only reached 4,000 of the 24,000 operations scheduled for yesterday. In Spain the figure was late in the afternoon at 3165 flights canceled, most connections with Europe. Only in El Prat de Barcelona cancellations amounted to 400 flights. Meanwhile, Asturias Airport 31vuelos suffered the cancellation of national and international. The forecasts, in its initial order Aena extended the closure until eight o’clock in the afternoon, were more pessimistic, since it was expected to be lost more flights. However, with the reopening of the airfield is managed to regain connections with Iberia and Vueling Madrid and Barcelona. At press time, had not forecast for the day today. “There’s too many problems, people are well informed by the companies themselves or the media and does not come to the airport,” he explained at noon the chief operating officer of Santiago del Monte, Ángel Álvarez.
Travelers, informed or not, had to fend to reach their destinations. Train, bus, rental cars and taxis were the alternative media. In Asturias, as Alsa Renfe yesterday strengthened its services to cover demand, but train tickets to Madrid and Barcelona were sold out by noon.
