Iceland Volcano Erupts - Myles McGowan

On April 14th the Eyjafjallajokull Glacier’s volcano erupted with smoke and ashes pouring out. The ashes consisted of small rocks and volcanic glass the size of a grain of sand. These particles were actually bits of frozen lava, making silica. The ash cloud reached the troposphere, which is 35,000 ft from sea level. Because of the air currents, the massive ash cloud moved toward Europe shutting down almost all airports by the 16th. Airports ranging from Greenland to Italy were closed, creating havoc for flyers and any industries that required these flights.

The volcano was still spewing smoke by Thursday the 22nd, but the smoke has decreased since the initial eruption. Airlines in Europe are beginning to open and are trying to fly out their passengers as quickly as possible. The closing of the airports for this week has caused the airlines to lose millions of dollars because of the stalling of flying. According to TIME Magazine, 100,000 flights were cancelled, and British Airways lost almost $30 million a day during the week of closings. The amount lost in total in airlines and other industries affected is about $15 billion.

By April 21, most of the airspace in Europe was reopened, but because of the closing of all those flights the wait for a return flight or a flight into Europe may take a while for some customers. The airlines are doing their best to fix this problem, and hopefully flights will begin to resume on time. Luckily because of the railroad system in place in Europe, travelers could find open airports and fly out sooner. Southern Europe was not as affected as long as northern Europe, so travelers could fly out sooner if they traveled south.