Europe

Results of test flights show “there’s no impact” in European Union air space from the volcanic ash that has disrupted air travel this week, EU Secretary of State Diego Lopez Garrido said Sunday.
EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said if the ash cloud continues “moving as it moves, then tomorrow almost 50 percent of European [Union] space will be risk free.” That would allow more flights to resume, he said. “But we’ll see tomorrow what the picture shows.”

The two men spoke at a meeting of Eurocontrol, which oversees air safety operations in the region.

A spokeswoman for KLM — one of the airlines that conducted test flights — told CNN the flights show European air space is safe with the exception of Iceland.

European transport ministers plan to discuss the results of flight tests at a technical meeting Monday.

The British government said Sunday that British air space will be closed for at least another 24 hours.
Britain is considering whether to draft the Royal Navy to help people stranded by the travel crisis, officials said.

Across Europe on Sunday, a handful of planes making test flights took off into skies dusted with volcanic ash, tasked with a single mission: determining whether passenger flights can safely resume.

“I wish to establish, as a matter of urgency, whether some safe flight paths can be identified and opened up to flights,” said British Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis.

Noting that other European nations were conducting similar test flights, Adonis said, “Urgent discussions are taking place with European and international regulatory agencies. We want to be able to resume flights as soon as possible, but safety remains my paramount concern.”

Millions of people have been affected by the biggest aviation disruption of recent years — some officials call it worse than after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
After a test flight Saturday evening, inspections “revealed that the flight had encountered no problems whatsoever,” KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced. Dutch transport authorities then allowed KLM to conduct nine more test flights.

British Airways announced it was operating a test flight Sunday as well. A 747 aircraft would fly for a few hours with a crew of five on board.

The French Aviation Authority said it was conducting evaluation flights as well, with results expected Sunday night.

Some European airports reopened Sunday, including several in France and Germany, and all 16 that had been closed in Spain. But officials in each country emphasized that decisions were being made around the clock and could change at any time. Airports in much of the continent remained closed, with passengers unable to fly anywhere — and many hotels quickly running out of rooms.

Since the eruption beneath southern Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier worsened last week, prompting local evacuations and affecting European air space, airlines have been losing at least $200 million a day, according to the International Air Transport Association, the trade group representing airlines. That could mean airlines worldwide have lost about a billion dollars as of Sunday.

Duration : 0:1:36

[youtube aNtv9sHSL0E]