Comments on: Impact of the volcano disruption on the airlines

By: Stanber Wilson

Stanber Wilson — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:25:02 +0000

“Even if a technical solution isn’t possible to the aircraft engine core, it is unlikely that this will pose a mortal long-term threat to the industry.”

No technical solution = volcano dust wins = no flights.

Forgotten last weeks events already, have we?

By: Traveller

Traveller — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:14:40 +0000

I wish more people were talking about this, right now. I travel all over Europe for my work, and have often wished I had time and money to go by train/ferry. The infrastructure is hopeless at the moment. Trying to get back from Germany to Scotland by train and ferry is a bad joke. Presumably air travel will be more expensive in the future, anyway, so hopefully the train and ferry companies will get their act together.

By: Brian Wright

Brian Wright — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:09:19 +0000

In my naivety, I presumed that Europe would have several hundred flights per day. How shocked was I to learn that the true figure is around 26,000. Little wonder Earth is suffering. I agree with Dennis of Berlin that intercontinental travel is seldom necessary given the business communication technology available to us at present. Perhaps the masses will develop a conscience about the state of our planet and dwindling fossil fuels and forget about their next whimsical adventure to some “exotic” destination.

By: dennis, berlin

dennis, berlin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:36:37 +0000

Mr. Melkert: “With growing wealth, the global populace will want to travel more, despite concerns about global warming.”
Wealth might not grow. The class of people with money enough for air travel might not grow. And the class of people with personal concern for the greenhouse gas consequences of air travel might grow.

Mr. Melkert: “There will simply not be enough available capacity in surface transportation to meet this need.” Come, come. Adding wagons to a train is much easier than flying additional planes. By adding tracks, train capacity is practically unlimited whereas air capacity is limited by congestion near hubs. And by noise near hubs — many people have been celebrating these past five quiet days. Most intra-European air travel can, and should, be replaced by rail travel. Intercontinental travel is seldom necessary. Note how intercontinental business travel easily shrank with the recent financial turmoil. With volcanoes the really necessary intercontinental air transportation will continue at higher cost.