Airport on standby for late flights but ash cloud could be over us today
Saturday 17th April 2010, 2:30PM BST.
PR director Katrina Bray booked her two weeks in Mauritius six months ago but was yesterday among those grounded. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0952834)
AIRPORT staff will work late this weekend if that can help hundreds of passengers stranded by flight cancellations due to volcanic ash.
Flying ceased from Guernsey Airport at 7pm yesterday. A review at 9am will decide if any flights will operate today.
‘There is an expectation that there will be a lot of ash in the air. The bulk of the ash cloud is going to be sat right over the top of the islands,’ said airport deputy director Simon Macphail. He said staff would do what they could to clear the backlog quickly.
The National Air Traffic Service said flight restrictions would remain in place until at least 7am today.
But Met Office forecasts show the plume of ash from Eyjafjallajokull will still be in the jetstream above the islands today.
Some inter-island flights resumed at 10.30am yesterday, with Aurigny and Blue Islands running a revised schedule, but it was unclear when a full service would resume.
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Nature shows who’s boss, again!.
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If its right over us, and inter-Island flights are safe, then how come Alderney-Southampton flights using the same aircraft which can travel at the same lows level are somehow regarded as unsafe??
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Why not Dinard as well. Aurigny use the same type of aircraft
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Hopefully this ash cloud will last for several months! That way, Guernsey may have to return to times of old when we were strict methodists and grew tomatoes.
I dislike the way the island has gone, especially in the way of Sunday trading!
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Why not all planes flying under say 5,000 feet if the volcanic ash is several thousand feet higher? Flights to/from Southampton, Bournemouth and Exeter could be invaluable. Routes such as Shoreham could be added as well. In fact, why not Gatwick and Heathrow.
The islands could be a perfect conduit for getting people from the European continent to the UK and vice versa, using Dinard, Cherbourg, Rennes etc.
Sounds a perfect opportunity for Aurigny and Blue Islands….
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Matt Le P
I don’t think the Airport fire fighters would put up with your suggestion
By the way I wonder how they have been spending their time since the flight suspensions
They must really be bored to tears
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Jimm, presuming just for one second you are being serious, if this were to happen you could make a living selling your story as a modern day Robinson Crusoe. You’d have to get it sent to the UK by carrier pigeon though…
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