Originally Posted by
Goldorak
Hello Brunos
I'm not sure that the volcano will have any effect on travel during the next weeks (except of course, if there are again some airports/airspace closures). Around me (colleagues, family, friends), whatever the purpose of the trip (biz or vacations), nobody has cancel or change any trip occuring after the re-opening of the airspaces.
I hope for airlines that you are right.
As I spent my last few days contacting staff of several airlines to get on a flight to Europe, I have developed good relationship with some of them. The impression at four airlines is that premium travel load is very weak for the coming weeks. It could be just technical as numerous conferences and meetings have been canceled and hence the return segment (scheduled in late April or early may) has also been canceled. One could argue that many pax have simply delayed their activities, but the loads of all airlines in rev biz are extremely low in late April/May for that busy season.
But itt could also be a corporate reaction to the perceived risk of having important pax stranded and unavailable for several days. I believe that for a few weeks (or months) corporations will be less enthusiastic about sending their employees around for meetings or activities that could be conducted in other fashion (telephone, video..). The question is not whether this is rational but whether it is taking place.