Financing a Volcano

For those who are dexterous enough to have kept all portions of their body above the trachea safely stowed in their own gluteal cavity, a volcanic eruption in Iceland ended up grounding most of Europe's air traffic for a week. Business people were stranded. Many vacationers had to extend their visits. Even the prime minister of Norway was stuck in New York, unable to return home, forcing him to do his job remotely via a new iPad. Now people are asking, Who should pay for the volcano disruption?

Europe is starting to reopen its skies almost a week after the eruption of an Icelandic volcano grounded most planes. Who should pay for the cost of this disruption?

At least 95,000 flights were cancelled in the past six days, and the air transport group IATA (The International Air Transport Association) says the delays have cost the industry $1.7bn (£1.1bn).

Forced to abandon scheduled flights, many passengers have funded their own return to the UK travelling by trains, buses, ferries and hire cars. Thousands of passengers remain stranded abroad and are still paying hotel and living expenses.

Is it reasonable to expect a budget airline to reimburse such high expenses for a low cost ticket? How can airlines recoup the cost of this disruption? Who do you think should pay the cost of returning passengers to the UK?

Who is going to pay for all this!?

As for stranded passengers, extended vacations, and all manner of stuck individuals, I have no easy answers. Perhaps those you found yourself stuck around will understand, consider it extenuating circumstances, and cut you a deal or even forgive the intrusion. These poor folks had nothing to do with that volcano erupting.

As for the airlines, they deserve no money for lost revenue. A person who lives in the same place their entire life knows what to expect and might never have to experience any sort of natural disaster. A company that provides flights for an entire continent and in some cases all over the world should expect to run into disasters. People are often expected to save up for 'incidentals'. Businesses, especially ones that involve air travel (what large business doesn't with shipping, global client meetings, running off to countries where it is legal to pay someone to engage in a particular form of sexual gratification not accepted in the so-called civilized world, etc.) should expect these things. Perhaps they could buy insurance to cover such costs or maybe just keep a 'rainy day' fund for when it does something odd like rain ash or fish, things that could ground airplanes.

To answer the questions from the article:
Is it reasonable to expect a budget airline to reimburse such high expenses for a low cost ticket? I think so, but wouldn't it be nice if we could just make it work without forcing companies to fork over dough? Wouldn't it be great if your boss paid you anyway, because it really wasn't your fault that you couldn't get back to work on schedule? Wouldn't it be fabulous if the hotel waived the fees due to the nature of the extended visit? Wouldn't it be nice if people just chose to be nice about it?

How can airlines recoup the cost of this disruption? I don't care how. Seriously, they should have planned for it to happen sooner or later. It should have been part of their operating model.

Who do you think should pay the cost of returning passengers to the UK? If I pay someone to take me somewhere, they better take me there or get someone else to do it. It has been a hard week, we should cut them a little slack on the time table. Those who sold a service need to honor it, no matter what the fine print says.

And if money is their biggest problem, then these folks don't have a whole lot to worry about.