Cloud hangs Over handling Of Air Crisis
Tuesday 20 April, 2010
Speaking in Strasbourg today, Timothy added his comments to the debate over the travel chaos following the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano on the south coast of Iceland. In his comments to local TV, he said he sympathised with the passengers stranded all over Europe due to the crisis, and he felt that more should be done to prevent the level of disruption to the travelling public if such events happened in future.
The crisis has hit the airlines especially hard. Coming off the back of a recession and various pay disputes, British Airways is said to have been losing 20-25million sterling a day. Some of the low cost airlines are also suffering as they are dipping into meagre cash reserves. Analysts are saying that some EU-based airlines are at breaking point - the European airline industry is said to have lost 1.5billion euros in the last 6 days.
With the airports finally reopening over Europe after nearly 6 days of inactivity, Timothy said:
"This has obviously happened as a result of an unforeseen natural phenomenon, but I would question the response of the government and the European authorities. I believe that initially a "safety first" approach was probably the right course of action. However I think the government was too slow to respond, the scientific information used may have been too limited, and in the end the length of the travel ban was perhaps disproportionate."
"Those of us here in Strasbourg have all experienced some form of discomfort to get here. A majority of MEPs are here, getting on with our work. But my thoughts go out to families who have been left stranded by these events. Surely a common approach to the compensation for passengers needs to be found. "
"Lastly, I think we have to look at what the airlines are going through and deal with their situation as quickly as we can. They have been losing money and we don't want to end up with a situation where they are tempted to sue the governments for the decisions that were made. Airlines are in dire financial straits as it is."
