How did the industry tackle the ash cloud crisis?

The Eyjafjallaj?kul volcano in Iceland spews a cloud of volcano dust over European skies closing airspace for six days.

How did the Middle East travel industry cope with what’s been called the “worst travel disruption the world has ever seen”?

ust when the travel industry was busily anticipating a bright and busy summer ahead it was stopped dead in its tracks last month when the eruption from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland brought Europe’s most important airports and air traffic to a standstill for six days.

The volcanic ash cloud caused thousands of flight cancellations and more than 7 million passengers to be stranded worldwide.

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One travel agent described the situation as the “worst travel disruption the world has ever seen”.

As well as having to cancel and re-book holidays for those unable to travel, agents and operators were suddenly faced with the nightmare situation of hundreds of passengers stuck in Europe with no way of getting home and no idea when they might be able to get on a flight.

Airlink International UAE had 100 passengers in Europe when the volcano erupted. Candida Fitzsimmons, supervisor, Leisure Travel said the agency worked around the clock to book stranded passengers into hotel accomodation and onto the first available flight.

“This is the worst travel disruption the world has ever seen. The biggest challenge for everyone in the industry is trying to accommodate stranded passengers in their current destination, rebook flights or find alternate routes,” she said.

Mohamed Al Rais, deputy managing director, Al Rais Travel said his staff were in “direct contact with all passengers to rebook another flight.” He said staff had been busy fielding calls from customers, “cancelling flights, extending hotels, or postponing trips.”

Many customers also requested refunds on holidays booked. “The biggest challenges have been getting hotel refunds at the last minute as some of the hotel are strict and will not accept it even though the customer insists.”

For tour operators the situation was equally chaotic. Emirates Holidays had to oull in extra staff to help tackle the crisis.

Hans Haensel, divisional senior vice president, Destination & Leisure Management, Emirates Holidays said: “We had a few hundred clients from Emirates Holidays in Europe – fortunately it was only about 20 percent of our business at the time as the majority of our business over the Easter period was to Asia and the Indian Ocean.”