3rd UPDATE: German Airspace Opened, Flights Approach Normal
April 21 2010 - 7:49AM
Dow Jones News
Germany's air safety agency DFS has now fully opened German
airspace, the agency said Wednesday, adding it doesn't expect the
volcanic ash situation to take a turn for the worse in the course
of the day.
Based on information from the German weather service, DFS said
"airspace contamination has significantly decreased, and will
continue to decrease helped by the weather situation."
While some vision flights have been permitted in past
days--flights in which pilots don't completely rely on automatic
controls and instruments--the air quality situation now allows
flights to operate as usual, DFS said.
Earlier Wednesday, Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA.XE) said it aimed
to gets its systems running as fully as possible, and planned about
500 flights for the day. Chief Executive Wolfgang Mayrhuber said
the airline would need about 48 hours, however, before Lufthansa
can resume full service.
Mayrhuber, speaking at an industry event in Berlin, said
Lufthansa's losses from the flight ban would be "considerable" but
declined to quantify them. He said he doesn't think airlines will
need a government bailout, but that the effects of the flight
disruptions need to be discussed.
Germany's second-largest airline Air Berlin PLC (AB1.XE) said it
would resume normal flight operations Wednesday and expected to
carry out almost all scheduled flights, with full operation by the
end of the week.
Company Web site: www.dfs.com
www.lufthansa.com
www.airberlin.com
-By Kirsten Bienk and Sarah Sloat, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69
29725500 (Patrick McGroarty contributed to this story.)