UK air space open

An end to the travel nightmare looked closer last night as UK airspace was re-opened allowing the first flight to land at Heathrow airport in 6 days, BA on the orders of Willie Walsh sent flights to Heathrow whilst the ban was still in effect in act of defiance against NATS. The ban was lifted at 22.00 hours and the BA plane was allowed to land.

Some sources think the gamble by BA to send the planes to Heathrow forced the hand of officials to open airspace as pressure was beginning to mount from disgruntled airlines and some 150,000 stranded passengers. Though NATS insist the ban was lifted after data collected from BA and various other test flights revealed that the aircraft’s could deal with volcanic ash.

Which does back up Willie Walsh’s theory that the “blanket ban” was an over-reaction and could have been handled much better, Mr Walsh also commented that it would take 2 weeks for operations to return to normal. Global airlines have lost over £1billion with BA losing £20million a day along with other major holiday providers recording huge losses as travellers demand refunds and compensation.