An eruption of travel chaos

[Silent Hunter]

Volcanic ash closes airspace of several European countries.

[You kip if you want to...]

Best be okay for Saturday morning, i'm heading to Paris outta Liverpool JLA.

[John Dibble]

Volcanic eruption, huh. Well, expect the next year or two to be a bit cooler.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

With reference to other thread, it means we have a new definition of 'Northern Europe' to play with.

[Joe Republic]

Jeez, Iceland is like the worst neighbor ever.  They lose a whole bunch of money that wasn't theirs, refuse to pay it back when they next can, and now they vomit and spread trash all over everybody's driveways so they can't even get to work.  What a bum!

[Middle-aged Europe]

Noticed extremely long lines at the railway station today. Must have to do with all the ash in the air, especially since all international airports in Germany have been closed by now. Train was also pretty occupied. Fortunately, I got a seat reservation a day before the Iceland eruption.

Ah well, Angela Merkel's plane (which was returning from the U.S.) also got re-routed to Portugal and now she's stuck in Lisbon or something.

EDIT: By the way, I just noticed that there's already a group called "Don't Fu** with Iceland, we will close your airports !!" on Facebook. More than 15,000 members. Quite impressive.

[2952-0-0]

I wonder which airlines will go bust or will need government bailouts. Not flying for days in an economy like this is sure to devastate the balance sheet.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Jeez, Iceland is like the worst neighbor ever.  They lose a whole bunch of money that wasn't theirs, refuse to pay it back when they next can, and now they vomit and spread trash all over everybody's driveways so they can't even get to work.  What a bum!

Iceland seemed like a reasonable neighbor until a couple of years ago. Then they went over to the dark side.

[opebo]

Oh lord, I hope I am not stuck in the Bad Place (I'm about to crack up from being here).  Scheduled to go back end of the week.. don't fly through Europe of course... just westward.

[??????????]

I wonder which airlines will go bust or will need government bailouts. Not flying for days in an economy like this is sure to devastate the balance sheet.

This is a situation in which a govt bailout would be appropriate, IMHO.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I wonder which airlines will go bust or will need government bailouts. Not flying for days in an economy like this is sure to devastate the balance sheet.

This is a situation in which a govt bailout would be appropriate, IMHO.

I agree.  Who honestly could have foreseen an event like this?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Iceland is now a terrorist state.  Not even 9/11 crashed air travel this long.

[Franzl]

I went through London last Sunday.....4 days before Europe's airspace was (more or less) completely closed.

Happy I wasn't traveling transatlantic this last weekend...

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Iceland is now a terrorist state.  Not even 9/11 crashed air travel this long.

Where is George W. Bush when we need him?

He would arrest that godamn vulcano and bring to Guantanamo.

[2952-0-0]

At least stranded Europeans can look at trains as a substitute, or at least use them to fly out of unaffected airports.

A similar disaster which shuts down air traffic in NYC, DC, Chicago, Detroit, etc would be far more serious on extremely auto-dependent North American society. But unfortunately that is precisely what's needed to make politicians get serious about better rail transportation (9/11 doesn't count, this is a complete Act of God).

[Cubby]

Best be okay for Saturday morning, i'm heading to Paris outta Liverpool JLA.

What did you end up doing on Saturday?

One of the network news reporters was in Iceland today and was reporting on the health effects of the ash cloud on people and animals (they are worried about farmers, who won't leave their livestock). At the end, the reporter says "Thankfully, the cloud is moving out to sea now". I'm sure all the stranded people at airports can sympathize

At least stranded Europeans can look at trains as a substitute, or at least use them to fly out of unaffected airports.

A similar disaster which shuts down air traffic in NYC, DC, Chicago, Detroit, etc would be far more serious on extremely auto-dependent North American society.......

Very true, but there is (by American standards) adequate passenger rail service between the cities of the Northeast Corridor, and between there and Florida. The rest of the country would be worse off, I think.

[Platypus]

Apparently Singapore is overlowing, with people camping out in hotel lobbies and schools hiring out classrooms to stranded tourists

[2952-0-0]

Makes a certain Republican's ridiculing of taxpayer funds for volcano monitoring, look all the more ridiculous.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Iceland is now a terrorist state.  Not even 9/11 crashed air travel this long.

Where is George W. Bush when we need him?

He would arrest that godamn vulcano and bring to Guantanamo.

Kaljew, I'm waiting for the leaping screaming libs to blame Bush. 

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

In a similar situation here in the U.S., the rental car companies would be doing a bonanza business.  Yet geography means we wouldn't see it here, at least not at the scale over in Europe.  The only comparable volcanoes with glaciers we have to worry about would possibly disrupt air traffic in the Pacific Northwest, but I can't see the rest of the country as having to worry.

[Verily]

In a similar situation here in the U.S., the rental car companies would be doing a bonanza business.  Yet geography means we wouldn't see it here, at least not at the scale over in Europe.  The only comparable volcanoes with glaciers we have to worry about would possibly disrupt air traffic in the Pacific Northwest, but I can't see the rest of the country as having to worry.

Or the Yellowstone Caldera could erupt, but then we'd be more concerned about the millions* dead


*Okay, maybe only hundreds of thousands. But surely at least half of the population of Wyoming would be gone.

[Franzl]

In a similar situation here in the U.S., the rental car companies would be doing a bonanza business. 

Oh they are in Europe as well, definitely.

[Vepres]

At least stranded Europeans can look at trains as a substitute, or at least use them to fly out of unaffected airports.

A similar disaster which shuts down air traffic in NYC, DC, Chicago, Detroit, etc would be far more serious on extremely auto-dependent North American society. But unfortunately that is precisely what's needed to make politicians get serious about better rail transportation (9/11 doesn't count, this is a complete Act of God).

We have to be more auto-dependent because our country is so large. It's easy to have rail when your country is the size of Missouri or something.

[Хahar 🤔]

At least stranded Europeans can look at trains as a substitute, or at least use them to fly out of unaffected airports.

A similar disaster which shuts down air traffic in NYC, DC, Chicago, Detroit, etc would be far more serious on extremely auto-dependent North American society. But unfortunately that is precisely what's needed to make politicians get serious about better rail transportation (9/11 doesn't count, this is a complete Act of God).

We have to be more auto-dependent because our country is so large. It's easy to have rail when your country is the size of Missouri or something.

No, no, no, that's not true at all. How often do you go across the country? We're auto-dependent because we go from home to work in our cars, not in trains or buses. That has nothing to do with the size of the country. Russia's far larger and has a much better rail system.

[The Mikado]

I just love the story of John Cleese cabbing it from Oslo to Brussels.  Luckiest cabbie ever: he made 5k euros and got to drive for hours with John Cleese.