Although I agree that the tests may be questionable, you have to understand how bad this is going to get for Europeans that work in the aerospace industry.

There is a huge amount of correlative industries that will be effected by this if it persists. If your aerospace industry collapses, who is going to bail them out? You. You will pay for this if it continues. Thats why there has to be a lot of research and concern on getting the airplanes back as safely and as soon as possible.

I hope this doesn't last into June (for obvious reasons).

I'd rather pay than having planes falling out of the sky, possibly several per day. Here is what the engine of a Finnish fighter jet looked like after passing through the ash cloud last Thursday:

Great, I ordered some bike stuff from the UK the day before this volcano started erupting. They are surely sitting in some depot along with mountains of other goods stranded by the lack of air travel. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.

Very well then. At losing $200m a day, they are already up to what? A billion USD now? What if this persists for weeks? months? A year? Do you realize that entire sectors could collapse, including food shortages in the UK. Now, since your in Portugal, you should fare well, but for the other parts of Europe....This could be disasterous.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they should just throw aircraft up there in hopes that they get through. I'm just saying that every EU country needs to scramble to figure out how to establish a proper countermeasure to ensure some air travel goes on, despite this, or else it could get really bad.

mrstickball, I read a quote from an aviation expert yesterday in this regard. It went along the lines that getting planes up in the air may prove immediately okay (planes don't drop out of the sky and kill people) but the wear and tear inflicted to the planes over a small number of flights could be immense. That means that while they may be able to transport people through the ash clouds, the longevity of aircraft could be severely reduced resulting in potentially expensive repair or replacement costs due to damage.

Actually I'm in Sweden.

There shouldn't be any serious food shortages because of this, not because the planes are down at least. There are plenty of ways to transport food, if we get less fresh vegetables and more frozen vegetables we're not gonna die because of that.

As for the $200m per day, that doesn't mean they have to be bailed out by that amount. If this continued for a long time, they would have to greatly cut their fixed costs.

Right. I fully understand that is the issue of the situation - after all, the Finnish F-18s did make it back to base, but probably could not withstand another sortie until many repairs were made.

My thought is that countermeasures must be developed and deployed ASAP to avert a financial catastrophe for Europe *if* this continues for a long period of time.

I don't think throwing the planes up in the air is the right idea - because as you said, it may cost a lot of money to do such a thing. However, on the other end, if all flights are grounded, things will progressively get worse for European industries.

I hope there are a few smart and savy Europeans that can research how to compensate for the ash, and implement measures as soon as possible.

UK and Spain are planning to use Spain (that is mainly uneffected) as a depot where people swich from plane to ship and the other way around.

Ah, my apologies. I thought you were from Portugal, as your profile states.

I know there are other ways to ship, that will obviously be used to compensate for this. I'm not trying to bring about some sort of doomsday nihlism. I just know how integrated America is with airplanes, and the incredible cost it would be to ourselves if suddenly, one day, we could not fly for an indefinite period of time.