mahasamatman

Because they all entail risk that many people (rightly) are not willing to assume. Running a business is a triviality compared to what could happen.

Call a travel agent? There are lots of TATL cruises, but they're certainly not speedy. The Queen Mary II departs Thursday - 7 days from Southampton to New York.

BDLORD

How about I was just told that Tuesdays flight has been canceled and now rebooked for Friday?
F ME

worldtrav

Sorry to hear about all your problems, it seems UA922 tomorrow out of IAD is canceled so therefore UA923 on Tuesday is canceled.

You may want to change your location listed in your profile

BDLORD

Good Idea

Bitterroot

Well, you've pretty much got it right. The UK Met maps work like this:

1. The red line shows where the mathematical models estimate the ash plume that is less than 20,000 feet in elevation ought to be. The actual plume isn't at 20,000 feet, and it isn't at 10,000 feet either. It's been somewhere around 16,000 feet for the most part, but it varies in height -- worse, there's very little info on how dense it is, which is why the European carriers are in a snit about the airspace closure. No one really knows if it's dense enough to do real damage. Below about 10 - 12,000 feet, there appears to be very little contamination (hence the VFR ferry flights in Germany and Holland yesterday, and many more all over today).

2. The other line (usually just the one contiguous green line; now showing two separate zones) is for another plume above 20,000 feet, but below 35,000 feet. Also not well understood.

The problem is not flying over or under these plumes: that's safe. It's ascending or descending through them. It's as if two floors in a 30-story building are blocked off. You can work around the green and blue floor; much more difficult to work around the red floor.

Mr.Nuke

Yes they do, and if they are located in a position to disrupt flight they do as well. The Mt. St. Helens volcano disrupted travel in the NW U.S. for several weeks. This eruption has been compounded by the most unfavorable jet streams possible that have sent the ash over Europe and left it there.

If the computer models are to be believed this hasn't been possible for the past several days. Hence the reason why all of the airspace has been shut down. If you look at any of the maps, England is entirely covered. You really can't "fly around it." Airports where you can "fly around it" have continued to operate or will begin operating again tomorrow.
It is theoretically possible to encounter ash at lower flight levels as well. Also modern jet engines aren't designed for extended periods of flight at low altitude. They are incredibly fuel inefficient.

flyinbob

Keep some hope. The local news here in the US is reporting the successful test flights in Europe, and predicting the pressure to get flights up and moving will increase drastically. A light, albeit tiny, at the end of the tunnel. ^

SkiAdcock

Bascially what they said in posts above. And while I get your bizness isn't happy/nor you, neither are others. However, until they know for certain you can fly home w/out losing an engine or something (and I'm assuming your family would like you back ), it is what it is. You try the workarounds as best you can. If you really want a boat, the Queen what's her name is ready & 7 days later you're there.

As a pilot said to me, they're not 'test flights', but 'repositioning' flights. Most have been done for short distances & at lower altitudes. We have to hope they will work at higher for longer distances. Cuz goodness knows, once you're over the water not a lot of soft landings...

Cheers.

Mr.Nuke

And said pilot was incorrect. Airlines like LH have been conducting low level repositioning flights operating under VFR rules. On the other hand their have been flights like a KLM 737 yesterday and a BA 747 today that have conducted high altitude "test" flights.

mahasamatman

Queen Mary 2. http://book.cunard.com/find/pb/cruis...yageCode=M003N

BDLORD

I'm about a mile from Luton Airport and I just heard a large jet just taking off or landing??? ...

twice now

Converse34

Flew MAD IAD today was originally supposed to go from CDG yesterday. flight was booked full but ended up with 25-30 seats. My advice is if you want to get home ASAP, get to MAD.

yogi

UA 977 DXB-IAD is currently crossing into Czech airspace at 34,000 feet near Zlin, heading 284. It looks like it is going to overfly southern germany, possibly FRA and LHR if it keeps on that track.

Scheduled/Actual:
Departure 12:10 AM / 12:40 AM
Arrival 6:37 AM / 8:10 AM

Heading into Germany the heading changed to 270, keeping just south of 50 degrees north. Previous speculation was that they would operate a more northerly route. Apparently not.

hmmm. Now heading 240 after passing directly over Bamberg DE, LUX and CDG. Great Circle Route heading heading from CDG to IAD would start at 292....

I also noticed UA 981 (KWI-IAD) just off the cost of Portugal at OPO heading 284.

redburgundy

It's DXB-IAD, not IAD-DXB.
That flight has been operating all week. There is evidently no problem at that flight level.

CleUnited

If anyone is keepin an eye flight 966 IAD-FCO took off 2019 EDT and is en route to FCO... This may look like things may start to ease up in that corridor.

Edit: It's taking a straight east route over spain and portugal... Just south of the predicted ash cloud formation.

With the "test" flights happening as well, looks like there may definitely be some increased pressure if things stay positive. Looking at some US news sources, the flights look like they've been positive so far but that was at limited levels going up to only 15000ft (I believe that was LH with some of their "repositioning/test" aircraft)... Anyone on the other side of the pond have any other newer updates? Maybe with some of the other carriers like KL or AF?

-CLE-