It seems that this ash cloud may still hang around for a while, so I wonder what impact it will have, aside from people not being able to travel.
First thing that springs to mind is air mail. I guess that there will soon be a massive backlog that would take ages to clear, especially if it goes on much longer. Perhaps they will have to start shifting it via surface mail instead.
Also, I heard it said somewhere that certain foods that are flown in will start to run out. Not really sure what they are, maybe soft fruit for example. I know that bananas are mainly shipped in refrigerated containers, filled with inert gas.
Not a good situation, but a fascinating experiment into just how much we depend upon air travel, beyond just passenger planes.
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Looking a bit deeper, it will have a knock-on effect to all kinds of transport.
Internal mail is often flown by the post office, that will have to travel by road/rail.
In fact ANYTHING that is normally flown, will have to be transported by other ways.
that of course means, that the surface transport network will become overstretched.....
Not looking good is it?
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I wonder what the net carbon foot print is. Ok we have saved the world by stopping planes running for a few days but I wonder how much extra polution it is generating because of the switch to road traffic.
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I think what we know about car journeys will prove to apply with what's (not) happening in the air.
Very, very, very few journeys made by car or plane are truly essential, and we can manage perfectly well without 99 per cent of them.
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Try and think of all the high value / urgent items DHL and UPS move.
Documents for all sorts of things. Urgent spares for anything e.g. the lift at your office, truck parts, hospital spares, computer parts etc.
Medical supplies / legal drugs are a big worry.
(DRBE must be suffering as no trips to LHR /LGW.)
F1 said IIRC they have 5 747s for kit and 5000 staff at the Grand Prix and yes lack of a GP
in not the end.
The list is very large!!!
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just seen a fight in my local supermarket two women fighting over the last packet of mangy touts from Mozambique
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Can the yellowbellies not grow those across the river from you? Might be worth buying a couple of fields...
I wonder what else is worth investing in on the possibility of the thing carrying on for a while? It's an ill wind...somebody will make a lot of money.
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>> I wonder what else is worth investing in on the possibility of the thing carrying
>> on for a while? It's an ill wind...somebody will make a lot of money.
Maybe short some airline stocks...if it went on for a while, some of them must start getting into trouble with cash flow...
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>> just seen a fight in my local supermarket two women fighting over the last packet
>> of mangy touts from Mozambique
It seems that suggesting society is only three meals away from revolution was hopelessly optimistic, in fact it is just one pack of fancy peas!
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Not that it will be of much relevance to the posters here, but apparently BBC Radio 1 breakfast show host Chris Moyles is trying to get back from NY in time to present his show tomorrow morning... He's made it as far as Barcelona (?!) so the beeb have drafted in Scott Mills to present Monday's show at least.
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>> Not that it will be of much relevance to the posters here but apparently BBC
>> Radio 1 breakfast show host Chris Moyles is trying to get back from NY in
>> time to present his show tomorrow morning... He's made it as far as Barcelona (?!)
>> so the beeb have drafted in Scott Mills to present Monday's show at least.
>>
So, at least something good's come out of it..........
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I notice petrol's gone up to £1.25/litre.
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>> Not that it will be of much relevance to the posters here but apparently BBC
>> Radio 1 breakfast show host Chris Moyles is trying to get back from NY in
>> time to present his show tomorrow morning... He's made it as far as Barcelona (?!)
>> so the beeb have drafted in Scott Mills to present Monday's show at least.
>>
>>So, at least something good's come out of it..........
One thing that would have made it even better is if he had taken Chris Evans with him !
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...Radio 1 breakfast show host Chris Moyles is trying to get back from NY...
Richard Allinson on Radio 2 this morning said he might be doing Steve Wright's afternoon show on Monday because he's stuck in America.
As I said earlier, the list of essential journeys is long indeed. :)
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>> ...Radio 1 breakfast show host Chris Moyles is trying to get back from NY...
>>
>> Richard Allinson on Radio 2 this morning said he might be doing Steve Wright's afternoon show on Monday because he's stuck in America.
You'd have thought with today's technology they could conduct the show from anywhere and not have to be in a BBC London studio.
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...they could conduct the show from anywhere...
Yes, I wonder if they might try to make something out of this by getting Wright to do his show from America.
There might be a cost implication for the satellite or whatever it is link.
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They managed to have Eddie Jordan commenting on the Chinese F1 despite the fact that he was in London. I can think of better uses of the airwaves though...
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>> They managed to have Eddie Jordan commenting on the Chinese F1 despite the fact that
>> he was in London. I can think of better uses of the airwaves though...
>>
Had I known, I would have cut Eddies phone line.
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 18 Apr 10 at 18:03
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>>You'd have thought with today's technology they could conduct the show from anywhere and not have to be in a BBC London studio. >>
It is regularly done, in fact it's yesterday's technology, whether radio or TV...:-)
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>> DRBE must be suffering as no trips to LHR /LGW.)
>>
>>
I certainly am!
Can I pop round for a square meal and a loan?
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>> no trips to LHR/LGW
I'd have thought a man of your calibre could have talked a customer or two into making the trip north of the border!
My college minibus was last seen heading all the way up the M6 on Friday afternoon, instead of doing its usual 10-mile shuttle run to East Midlands airport with the Scottish students.
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There's Chris Moyles, Steve Wright, Gary Lineker, John Cleese and goodness knows who else scattered around the world.
If they can't stop in their own houses for five minutes, why not spend some money in this country?
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If it means we don't import green vegetables from Kenya, then that's a result.
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Unless you are a Kenyan farmer.
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Got a soft spot for Kenya. Whats the issue?
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I think Duncan is commenting more about food miles in general, than Kenyan green been farmers in particular.
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Give me Sir Terry, Johnnie Walker (NO Dog, not the Whisky). Get rid of Evans and whoever that female is after him the past week or two and also that total Moron, Steve Wrong (in the Afternoon).
There are better Jos Dickey's here methinks!!
M
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>> I think Duncan is commenting more about food miles in general than Kenyan green been
>> farmers in particular.
>>
Quite so.
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>>I wonder how much extra pollution it is generating because of the switch to road traffic.
About one ten-thousanth of what is spewing out of that volcano.
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Doesn't the sea/oceans plus volcanos produce a lot of the greenhouse gases we blame cars and planes for.
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killer line
"The real danger for them (company executives) is that we'll discover we don't really need them," one business leader joked.
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People will now discover that a lot of business trips are actually not necessary :)
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Well my cancelled business trip involved discussions with customers for renewal of contracts for my company worth literally millions of pounds. We have to fight suppliers world wide for these contracts .
You simply have to meet these customers and form relationships. You cannot do this sort of business by phone.
Everything we supply is exported , the majority of it by air.
Delays with shipments out of UK are already of concern to my customers who expect goods to be delivered on time.
If they cannot get the items from the UK they will simply go else where.
The situation is manageable for my company at the moment but I can see many going to the wall ....
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retpocileh just wack a chunder of cash in a brown envelope over first class land mail thats what most 2 bit 1st world countries and companies do
just dont put a return address on the envelope
in case it gets opened by monopolies and mergers quangos that say you have reduced your prices to be competitive and its just not cricket................
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A question which now occurs to me is what the potential implications are in relation to the refunding of costs of cancelled trips. For example, I have business flights booked for later this week and holiday ones a few weeks hence. If they don't fly I wonder if the costs will be re-imbursed or whether some "Act of God" type clause will come in to play. Must check the fine print.
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Had a tip last night from a Guy who should know. He says that the Post Office travel ins' would cover the current problem. Act of God elsewhere methinks, but....................
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Lady on the TV just now was saying that EU carriers have higher obligations than non-EU - e.g. for stranded passengers on an EU return flight the carrier has to provide suitable accommodation and food in case of delays (but their idea of suitable may differ from yours). She made the point that many budget airlines you actually book as two singles legs so the EU protection would not apply.
SWMBO was due to go to Cyprus this coming w/e - she is expecting full refund.
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Humph, I spoke to my insurers about this yesterday. Apparently I am not covered for natural disasters, they are excluded, but the decision has been taken by the underwriters that this would not be reasonable in the circumstances, so I am covered after all.
Normally delay cover would be 300 quid, but I've been told to keep expenses "reasonable" and to keep all receipts - a settlement will be reached when I get back to the UK. As long as they mean it, this sounds reasonable to me.
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All this has made me very glad that we've booked a cruise from Southampton for our honeymoon. We don't go for another six weeks, but the way things are going the chaos looks like lasting until then at least.
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>> All this has made me very glad that we've booked a cruise from Southampton for
>> our honeymoon. We don't go for another six weeks but the way things are going
>> the chaos looks like lasting until then at least.
>>
You and 'er Indoors would get on very well Badwolf. She just loves cruising. Always with P&O from Southampton. Some I have enjoyed.
Best to you both.........Martin
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>> All this has made me very glad that we've booked a cruise from Southampton for
>> our honeymoon. We don't go for another six weeks but the way things are going
>> the chaos looks like lasting until then at least.
>>
You just wait until your cruise ship is requisitioned to bring all the stranded holidaymakers home!
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>>You just wait until your cruise ship is requisitioned to bring all the stranded holidaymakers home!
It's already happening:
Thomson has also confirmed that its Island Cruises ship, Island Escape, currently in Funchal (Madeira) will bring all customers onboard directly back to the UK. Passengers onboard this ship had previously been scheduled to fly home to the UK, but will instead travel directly to Falmouth (Cornwall) on the ship with an arrival date of Friday, 23 April. Extra spaces onboard the ship, enabled over 300 non- cruise Thomson customers holidaying in Madeira and whose flights had been cancelled, to embark the ship and be repatriated back to the UK. From Falmouth, customers will then be transferred by coach back to their original UK departure airport.
Thomson Cruises will also be utilising its new Thomson Dream ship to transfer customers from Majorca to Barcelona from where their onward journey will be arranged.
www.thomson.co.uk/editorial/alerts/thomsonfly-travel-alert.html
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For sure BA are offering refunds, and now have a mechanism in place to get the 60 quid cancellation charge back, not sure about other airlines.
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Ryanair have just emailed me advising of the cancellation of a flight I was due to take tomorrow. They have offered a refund on that and the return trip which was booked for Friday. Pleasantly surprised at one level. Disappointed at the inconvenience at another but I suppose there's not much more to say. Can't really send a complaint to a volcano can I ? Might get a heated response.......
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or a huff and a puff and a load of hot air
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...Pleasantly surprised at one level...
Cabin crew might be sat around doing nowt, but I imagine reservations has a bit on at the moment, so keeping you informed is a good effort.
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I thought so too.
Daughter of a friend is cabin crew. She's single, stuck in Cuba, in a nice hotel, on expenses. Not very bothered yet......
:-)
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....stuck in Cuba, in a nice hotel, on expenses
obviously lucky she did not go with RyanAir!
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Just been talking to another pal who's wife and kids are stuck at the holiday apartment they own in Spain. He's really worried about them. Tonight he's going out for a few pints with some mates. Tomorrow he's playing golf after work, night after he's got a squash match and another pub session planned........ He figures if it goes on for more than a week or two he'll drive down and fetch them......
:-)
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Return of the contrail. One a/c going south, in what's normally a "northbound lane", around an hour ago
But normally there'd be two or three contrailing north plus others out of London or into Manch or Leeds below contrail level. And then Brum inbounds descending through FL90 at six minute intervals as well.
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Impact of no planes - swiss tony
