Clearing Skies: Europe Eases Flight Restrictions amid Fears of New Ash Cloud

• Print
• E-Mail
• Feedback

The transport committee of the German parliament, the Bundestag, will consider the possible consequences of the flight ban in a special session on Tuesday. The committee members want to talk to representatives from government, airlines, air traffic control, airports and the German Weather Service (DWD) in order to take stock of the situation and discuss possible measures.

Meanwhile, several German politicians -- including members of the governing center-right Christian Democrats and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party -- have been sharply critical of how Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer has managed the crisis. "Ramsauer has to ask himself how the differing assessments of the situation can be explained," said Andreas Lämmel, a member of Angela Merkel's CDU who is chair of the Bundestag's economy committee, in remarks to the newspaper Bild. "It is not acceptable to rely solely on measurements that are highly controversial, given the immense economic damage, especially in the area of tourism."

Horst Friedrich, a transport expert with the FDP, said that Ramsauer had been "too rigid" in focusing exclusively on the issue of safety. Ramsauer had not paid enough attention to the problems of people stranded abroad who were desperate to get home, he said.

In remarks to SPIEGEL ONLINE Monday, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the floor leader for the center-left Social Democratic Party, accused the government of "negligence" in dealing with the travel chaos. "We should be able to expect that the consequences of a natural disaster are dealt with in a professional way," something that the government was not doing, he said.

On Sunday, Ramsauer had said that he would not allow himself "to be put under pressure by airlines" and emphasized that safety was the top priority. He said he would never allow "the risk to passengers' life and limb to be offset against loss of revenue." Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber responded to Ramsauer's comments by saying it was "outrageous to accuse Lufthansa or the German airlines of putting profit before safety."

'Under Pressure'

The German pilots' union Cockpit has expressed concerns about the gradual resumption of flights. "In our opinion, it cannot be completely ruled out that there could be incidents," Cockpit spokesman Jörg Handwerg told the television station ARD on Monday evening. "The pilots feel under pressure because they also feel an obligation toward their employers." Handwerg said that Ramsauer had buckled under pressure from the airlines in relation to the partial lifting of the flight ban. It was the pilots who would now be held responsible if there was an accident, he said.

Ramsauer rejected the criticism from Cockpit. "We have now allowed limited flights under special conditions in various zones, based on regulations and all the data that we have collected," he told the television station ZDF on Tuesday morning. Pilots had been telling him for days that all they wanted was for air traffic to get back to normal, he said. "That is the exact opposite of Cockpit's position," he said.

The International Federation of Airline Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) emphasized that safety had to be the top priority. "IFALPA believes that a return to flight operations in Europe may be possible but only on the understanding that these decisions are safety rather than economically driven," the group said in a statement Tuesday. "Historical evidence of the effects of volcanic ash on aircraft demonstrates that this material presents a very real threat to flight safety."

• Back
• 1
• | 2

• Part 1: Europe Eases Flight Restrictions amid Fears of New Ash Cloud
• Part 2: Pilots Raise Safety Concerns