I would say this might be bigger than 9/11 on a global scale which more or less only affected the US airspace. Here in northern europe, we are still totally shut down and latest forecasts say that Scandinavia might open tomorrow morning. Since all major hubs all down to southern germany (is MUC still open?) are shut down this severely affects global traffic patterns, and will for days to come.
Latest i heard is that since the ash cloud spreads south and east over europe, there can be several days before this has blown over. Operations will commence with Norway, UK and Scandinavia first, but mid and eastern europe might be closed for days.

this is going to cost the airlines big

hope none of the weaker ones go out of business as the result

I agree that replacing all the individual airline threads with a sticky thread would not be productive. That said, a separate sticky thread could still be useful to simply list what airports are closed until what time. This would give people an idea of where to look for flights that are still operating. I saw on the news today that Sofia (!) was shutting down.

A sticky thread restricted to this specific information would be a way to readily grasp in a single thread what the scale of this thing is, with referrals to the individual airline threads for specific information on any given flight/airline.

Here is a list of countries affected as of 1100 GMT on Friday:


AUSTRIA - Airspace to be closed in steps from "late afternoon" according to national air traffic control. Vienna airport says 50 outgoing and 41 incoming flights to Vienna have been cancelled so far.


BELGIUM - Air space closed until Saturday 0800 GMT


BRITAIN - English airspace is closed until 2400 GMT. Limited flights from Scotland and Northern Ireland operating until 1800 GMT.


DENMARK - Closed for Friday.


FRANCE - Airports across northern France, including Paris, will remain closed until at least 1800 GMT.


GERMANY - Takeoffs and landings have stopped at a total of 13 airports in Hamburg, Bremen, Hanover, Muenster, Duesseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt, Saarbruecken, Berlin, Leipzig, Erfurt and Dresden. Aircraft can still land at airports in southern Germany such as Stuttgart or Munich.


ITALY - Rome's Fiumicino airport has cancelled 34 flights to northern Europe. Alitalia has cancelled all its flights to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels.


LUXEMBOURG - Air space closed until 1600 GMT


NETHERLANDS - Air space closed.


NORWAY - Closed for Friday.


POLAND - Only one airport, in the south-eastern city of Rzeszow, is open after air space over the country was closed.


SLOVAKIA - All flights from Bratislava cancelled.


SPAIN - Madrid airport open.


SWEDEN - Closed for Friday.


AIRPORTS OPEN:


RUSSIA - Airports in Russia remain open. The airport in Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania, was closed briefly on Friday morning but has reopened.


BULGARIA - Sofia open; flights to western Europe cancelled.


CYPRUS - Larnaca, Paphos open.


ROMANIA - Bucharest open.

A sticky makes sense, but I'm only seeing it in MilesBuzz, which is supposed to be "Discussion of the latest 'frequent flyer program' buzz...only!" Surely it belongs in TravelBuzz.

I think there are too many different scales which this can be operating at to make it possible to contain everything within one thread/sticky - there will be discussion on individual airlines and possible country forums as well.

Personally, as an airline forum mod, I would be open to ideas which can improve the pooling of information across FT - the VS thread is not as active as some others, but VS is not operating at the moment, based as it is in the UK, and this is an enormous event which has no end in sight - for example, no-one in the UK can recall the last time UK airspace was completely closed. We didn't ground all planes over here on 911.

When i get a chance, I'm about to do an overhaul of the thread on the VS forum adding in a lot of additional information (in a way similar to the AA forum thread, but also with links to the other threads on airline forums), but I can't guarantee I'll be able to personally keep the first post updated with latest information (that whole having a life thing ;)). Open to other suggestions as to how to improve information sharing.

Edited to add: I've now updated the first post in the VS thread. I'd like to hat tip to Kiwi Flyer for his consolidated list of airline threads and also to the AA mods for their excellent summary thread of the latest situation, which means that the VS forum has a thread specific to us, but with the overview information, or information from other airlines, easily accessible ^

And a personal thank you to hfly for starting this thread and making me think as one of the VS mods how the information should be available on the VS forum. I can't influence much, but I hope I've made it more cohesive at least on that forum.

Link to the VS thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgi...7th-april.html

thanks Ktremor, Jenbel, and Kiwi Flyer for your efforts in providing a comprehensive picture.

Latest forecasts have ruled out any chance that air traffic will be resumed in Swedish airspace during saturday. Risk is also very high that it will remain closed until Sunday evening.

If there's a good spot for a thread for people who can offer a couch to a stranded traveler, let me where to put it. :-) I can offer a couch not far from both LGA and JFK.

We're doing a 'stranded traveller' thread in Communitybuzz! - possibly in there?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...up-thread.html

With so many volcano threads about, I figured the sticky would be the best one to share picture of Eyjafjallajökull in. Really gives you an idea of the power of mother nature.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/...b9cb114d_o.jpg

Here's a real time map of the ash flow (which makes it look like Rome may be affected, while showing up Spain is now clearing up).

http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/C...pop_nube.shtml

KLM and Lufthansa have both asked the European flight commission (whichever agency that is) to allow short haul flights tomorrow. KLM sent up test plans - to much higher altitudes than 3000 feet (all the way to 30,000 feet as I understand it). Each airline was flying planes to home airports - and KLM in particular stated their planes showed no signs of damage - or even much ash at all (flying at the edge of the no-fly zone).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8627720.stm

In the meantime, Britain, Norway, Sweden and Finland remain affected by the continuously spewing of ash, held in place by low pressure system over Europe,further south.

Meterologists say that a wind change is needed - and none is forecast for the next few days. Forecasters who normally forecast 10 days in advanced are restricting forecasts to 3-5 days, since no one knows how the ash will affect the weather.

There are 9 different ash measuring agencies on Earth:

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/ash/trans/index.php#aircraft

(scroll down to see how the international cooperation on measuring ash etc. was set up in 1995).

People at these centers are trying to figure out which eruption this most resembles and understand it better. This is going to take time.

Airlines appear to be receiving updates (mostly no-fly orders) every six hours.

As I type, word in that Rome is cancelling flights too.

Cloud is headed for Moscow, but no action yet.

Hotel policies
 

I certainly think we need a centralized forum.

Has anyone heard of any hotel groups, Spg?, offering special distresed passenger rates? We are stranded in europe with our 3 kids under 5, and our hotel has been amazing thus far.

Options are to wait here till it blows over ( preschool is optional and I can work from anywhere this week) or to drive 18 hours and take a ferry 18 hours over a few days (guaranteed to get home)

The impact and disruption of the volcanic eruption has the potential to be very significant. I am glad in today's technological world, as I type this on my iPad, that we have resources such as flyer talk and others to share ideas on.

deleted