-Professor Amir  Sharif is professor of operations management and director of MBA programmes at Brunel Business School. The opinions expressed are his own.-

It will not have escaped anyone’s notice recently that volcanoes and aircraft do not mix. Six days of global flights being reduced by 30 percent of normal traffic volume amounted to a staggering $200 million per day loss (according to industry bodies such as IATA and the AEA).