Written by In the aftermath of the total closure of UK and other European airspace, UK airlines are demanding compensation from the Government…you and me in essence.
I have one thing to say to the UK airlines and that is p*ss off.
As far as I am concerned, NATS and the government had no prior information from which to work from as this volcanic eruption was a completely unprecedented occurrence for such a wide area. It is their job to put safety over profit, and yes with hindsight we can all say they were overcautious. But if the airspace had opened earlier and a plane had crashed, there would have been uproar.
When the french ports are blockaded and UK haulage companies lose money by the bucketload, to my knowledge, they don’t get compensation – why should the airlines?
A sound business model would be able to cope with short term operational stoppages. Risk assessment should have flagged up that there would always be a possibility of environmental factors grounding planes, and generally the smaller the risk, the greater the cost is if it ever happens.
This was an event to learn from and companies should bear the costs themselves. If this means prices go up, then so be it. Maybe we have all gotten far too blase about travelling abroad.
In the UK motor insurance market, a percentage of every premium goes into a pot to pay claims of victims of uninsured drivers. Maybe the same thing should be applied to the airline and holiday industry. It would work as a kind of environmental/act of god insurance scheme.
However, the numpties running the country have no backbone and I’m sure will reach a compromise with the airlines to part compensate them, and nothing sensible or workable will be done to help ease the same problem in the future.