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Volcaninc Ash Disrupts Emirates UK Flights.

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Old Apr 19, 2010, 12:43 am
  #46  
 
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Originally Posted by ung1
Is it not possible for them to fly, say, an A380 to Rome, or just have extra flights, and then transport people by land (hire buses or whatever) to at least relatively nearby destinations?
Extra flights to Rome need extra crews in Rome to fly the planes back to Dubai.

Which relatively nearby destinations?
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 12:54 am
  #47  
 
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Cancellations for Mon 19 April

No change on the cancellations for today:

From EK website:

"Much of Europe’s airspace remains closed due to the volcanic activity in Iceland. All of Emirates’ flights to the UK and most other European destinations are cancelled on the 19th April with the exceptions of: Moscow, Athens, Larnaca, Malta and Istanbul. These destinations could also be subject to cancellations if the path of the ash cloud continues to spread.

Currently Emirates is not accepting any passengers for travel to European destinations (excluding Moscow, Athens, Larnaca, Malta and Istanbul) until the 20th April."
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 1:45 am
  #48  
 
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Originally Posted by kataka
Extra flights to Rome need extra crews in Rome to fly the planes back to Dubai.

Which relatively nearby destinations?
Fly the crew there, not that hard.

The same destinations people are hiring taxis for EUR 2000 to get to. Admittedly, most of them are anything but near, but if I was managing the situation, I might try to get coaches organized to drive people to wherever, especially if this is going to last a long, long time.
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 2:00 am
  #49  
 
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Originally Posted by MarkLHR
No change on the cancellations for today:

From EK website:

"Much of Europe’s airspace remains closed due to the volcanic activity in Iceland. All of Emirates’ flights to the UK and most other European destinations are cancelled on the 19th April with the exceptions of: Moscow, Athens, Larnaca, Malta and Istanbul. These destinations could also be subject to cancellations if the path of the ash cloud continues to spread.

Currently Emirates is not accepting any passengers for travel to European destinations (excluding Moscow, Athens, Larnaca, Malta and Istanbul) until the 20th April."
NCE (Nice) is still open and EK flights there are operating.
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 2:42 am
  #50  
 
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Has anyone managed to speak to any Emirates staff?

I have tried to call their UK centre and it is just an answering machine saying "very busy, call back later"....
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 2:48 am
  #51  
 
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Originally Posted by ung1
Fly the crew there, not that hard.

The same destinations people are hiring taxis for EUR 2000 to get to. Admittedly, most of them are anything but near, but if I was managing the situation, I might try to get coaches organized to drive people to wherever, especially if this is going to last a long, long time.
Agree, and it seems that some airline is already operating this way.
In a few hours you can get a lot of cities in Continental Europe. Airlines can also get charter trains, they're not that expensive.
Anyway, Rome is open so far and EK is operating, despite the warning on the home page, and FCO can provide connections to other open airports in southern Europe.


I flew yesterday from FCO. Plenty of people coming from/going to other cities in Europe: pax rerouted by coach, groups coming by coach/train, travellers coming by taxi from other countries, etc.
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 4:32 am
  #52  
 
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Originally Posted by ung1
Fly the crew there, not that hard.
They will need to rest for minimum 24 hours before they can fly back.
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 4:41 am
  #53  
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Originally Posted by ung1
Is it not possible for them to fly, say, an A380 to Rome, or just have extra flights, and then transport people by land (hire buses or whatever) to at least relatively nearby destinations?
Indeed, the British government is looking at just that solution.

They want to repatriate as many stranded British Nationals to airports in Spain, and then transport them by bus/train/ferry back to the UK from there.

AFP - Britain working on Spanish hub for stranded nationals.

Whether Emirates would be expected to pay/assist in onward travel from Rome is another point. But I bet there are many hundreds of passengers would jump at the chance of getting to Rome and taking their own chances from there on.
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 4:45 am
  #54  
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Originally Posted by kataka
Extra flights to Rome need extra crews in Rome to fly the planes back to Dubai.

Which relatively nearby destinations?
That's slightly missing the point - if the aim is to try and get as many stranded passengers back home, or as close to home as possible, then these flights will be ferrying people in one direction only. There are 30 planes grounded in the Emirates network - so they may as well fill some and fly people to Rome (or Madrid) and have them grounded there. They won't need to come back in a hurry so the crew can get their rest.

Which relatively nearby destinations, you ask? Most of Europe would be reachable within 24 hours of arrival in Rome or Madrid. Better to do that, than to remain stranded wherever for another 4/5 days (or longer).
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 5:02 am
  #55  
 
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Originally Posted by irishguy28
That's slightly missing the point - if the aim is to try and get as many stranded passengers back home, or as close to home as possible, then these flights will be ferrying people in one direction only. There are 30 planes grounded in the Emirates network - so they may as well fill some and fly people to Rome (or Madrid) and have them grounded there. They won't need to come back in a hurry so the crew can get their rest.

Which relatively nearby destinations, you ask? Most of Europe would be reachable within 24 hours of arrival in Rome or Madrid. Better to do that, than to remain stranded wherever for another 4/5 days (or longer).
Completely agree with that. And I meant carry crew as passengers. Even if they need 24 hours rest, it's better than over a week without any flights at all. Rome is a 332, i'm sure they can do better than that. And even if EK isn't expected to pay for onward land travel, I'm sure people would pay if arrangements were made for them and the cost was reasonable. I read on the BA forum, someone had hired a car for 24 hours for 2,000 EUR. For slightly more, one could just buy a second hand car!
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 5:21 am
  #56  
 
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Originally Posted by irishguy28
Whether Emirates would be expected to pay/assist in onward travel from Rome is another point.
Thats an interesting point, the news channels keep on interviewing people who complain that the airlines are not helping them. As much as I understand their pain ( stuck in a foreign land, running short of funds, no clean clothes, even though most FTers love airport camping - its not a lot of fun if you are 'a normal person') airlines do not pay for weather delays, and this is nothing more than that.
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 6:43 am
  #57  
 
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Originally Posted by afhstingray
im not sure what news you're reading but they've sent up a dornier prop aircraft with scientists (twice now i believe) to check out the smoke cloud (albeit not fly right through it), and they're conducting a few low altitude flights to see if its a viable alternative for the resumption of flights.

also, apparently a lot of the ash is being swept into the high altitude air currents, which happen to be at around the same height as cruising altitude, not significantly visible from the ground in most areas but enough to cause damage.

the source of my info is the BBC website and the orange world headlines on my orange mobile phone.
Hello again. I see that the latest news on the BBC website now seems to be supporting my take on the situation, expounded in my earlier post, which is that there was a combination of misinformation (or lack of information), mis-management (or lack of management) and overreaction in the creation of this deplorable and hysterically overblown debacle. The powers that be have now got to figure out a way to get out of this mess without losing too much face.
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 3:32 pm
  #58  
 
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Originally Posted by kataka
They will need to rest for minimum 24 hours before they can fly back.
Errr...the crew that would operate the hypothetical Rome-DXB flight don't need to work as 'crew' while flying to Rome....
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Old Apr 19, 2010, 9:42 pm
  #59  
 
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Originally Posted by The Flyer
Errr...the crew that would operate the hypothetical Rome-DXB flight don't need to work as 'crew' while flying to Rome....
Travel time as pax does not equate resting time.
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Old Apr 20, 2010, 3:29 am
  #60  
 
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EK is adding a second flight from NCE to DXB today to help with the backlog.
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