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SALT LAKE CITY -- The volcanic ash drifting from Iceland has grounded thousands of additional flights Friday across Europe.
The Eurocontrol air traffic agency says nearly two-thirds of Friday's scheduled 28,000 daily flights were canceled; nearly double the number grounded Thursday. Only about 120 trans-Atlantic flights made it to European airports Friday, less than half the normal load of 300. Another 60 flights between Asia and Europe were also canceled.
The International Air Transport Association estimates the volcano is costing the industry at least $200 million a day.
Related:
Flight disruptions in Europe get even worse
Thick drifts of volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland on Friday as a vast, invisible plume of grit drifted over Europe, emptying the skies of planes and sending hundreds of thousands in search of hotel rooms, train tickets or rental cars.Utah is also affected. Salt Lake International Airport has a direct flight to and from Paris five days a week. Friday's flights were cancelled, so nearly 200 passengers who were scheduled to fly out of Salt Lake City will have to make other plans.
Those who were hoping to leave Paris are still stranded because they don't have a plane.
"There's such a myriad of connections that there's no one-size-fits-all formula to deal with this, and it will probably evolve into next week," says Barbara Gann, spokeswoman for Salt Lake International Airport.
"It's fluid. It'll be on and off through the weekend. Some airports are having windows of openings, and some airlines are cancelling in advance. It's just hard to know because it's flight by flight, and an individual situation can be completely different from another one."
The huge plume of ash from a volcano in Iceland is drifting into Europe, and all the major airports in the region are shutting down. Thousands of passengers in the United Kingdom, Paris, Germany and other cities are sleeping on cots in airport terminals, not knowing when they'll be able to leave.
For many of these people, their vacation plans are ruined and they're scrambling to contact their travel agents. Brian Hollien, president of Morris Murdock Travel in Salt Lake, says hundreds of people have contacted them, trying to rebook or change their travel plans. But with so many airports shut down now, and perhaps more to follow, it's not easy to do.
"There's not enough inventory for people to get there over the next couple of weeks", Hollien says. "So some of these folks might be delayed more than a month."
In some cases, passengers who originally had direct flights are having to take multiple connections now, and even then, there are no guarantees.
Hollien told KSL 5 about a call from a client Thursday. He said, "One passenger wanted to be re-accommodated, and we did it after hours and hours of work yesterday with four connections to get into Germany. And now, between yesterday and today, Frankfurt is shut down."
This is a scenario that could take a while to settle out, and Gann says airplanes and crews will need time to get back into position.
"As in 9/11, it took awhile for it to unravel. For equipment to get to the right place, and flight attendants and pilots to match up with that equipment," Gann explained. "So even after this original impact, there may be a long ripple effect."
Bottom line, call your airline if you have any plans for Europe, and even to major cities to the east coast--because they'll likely have some delays.
E-mail: kmccord@ksl.com
