Ferry passengers sailing pretty as ash brings more air chaos
Ferry Online Travel News 17/05/2010
Ferry companies are some of the few winners amongst historic travel headaches.
European ferry firms are looking forward to booming business in the wake of yet another round of air-travel misery. Air passengers and airlines are facing days of more flight mayhem after another dense cloud of volcanic ash arrived from Iceland. Rolling airspace suspensions across Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK from Sunday are set to continue into Monday.
Airport closures are causing a financial, logistical and PR nightmare for airlines but have led to huge increases in bookings for ferry companies. Irish Ferries and Stena Line have seen thousands of more bookings for vessels between Ireland and Holyhead, in Wales. Irish Ferries said calls to their booking centres and traffic on their website were up three-fold. Weeks ago, ferry companies were part of a huge emergency operation to help stranded air passengers get home during the first wave of ash chaos. Now, ferry companies are seeing big upswings in reservations every time there's a threat of further problems with Europe's air travel.
On Sunday, airports across Ireland and the UK closed after a new ash cloud drifted into European airspace. In London, authorities closed Heaththrow, Gatwick, Stansted and London City airports from 1am on Monday and said they were unlikely to reopen for at least six hours.
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