The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland on 20 March 2010 affected the economic, political and cultural activities in Europe and across the world.
There was an extensive air travel disruption caused by the closure of airspace over many countries affecting the travel arrangements of hundreds of thousands of people in Europe and elsewhere. Sporting, entertainment and many other events were cancelled, delayed or disrupted when individuals or teams were unable to travel to their destination.
The state funeral of President of Poland Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria Kaczyńska on 18 April 2010 was affected as some national leaders were unable to attend, including Barack Obama, Stephen Harper, Angela Merkel, and Nicolas Sarkozy.
Economic Impacts
Airline industry
Air travel and transport throughout the world was cancelled due to the airspace restrictions and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated the airline industry worldwide would lose £130 million ($20 million) a day as a result. IATA stated that the total loss for the airline industry was around US$1.7 billion (£1.1 billion, €1.3 billion). The Airport Operators Association (AOA) estimated that airports lost £80 million over the six-and-a-half days. Over 95,000 flights had been cancelled all across Europe during the six-day travel ban, with later figures suggesting 107,000 flights cancelled during an 8-day period, accounting for 48% of total air traffic and roughly 10 million passengers.
Following the travel disruption, EU ministers agreed to accelerate the integration of national air traffic control systems into the Single European Sky and also to the immediate creation of a crisis coordination group to handle future transport disruptions.
European economies
Several sectors that depend on air-freighted imports and exports were badly affected by the flight disruptions.
Imports of medications were affected, and local stocks, as they expire.
Business people and officials expressed concerns about imports of fresh food and other essential goods into the United Kingdom.
FedEx, DHL Express and other logistics companies were unable to transport goods by air. Instead they had to transport packages to alternate destination (such as Istanbul or Madrid) and then ship by road to the final destination.
Travel firm TUI Travel reported losses of per day during the airspace closure due to travellers being unable to return home.
The carmaker BMW said it was suspending production at three of its plants in Germany, because of interruptions in the supply of parts. As waylaid travellers scrambled for other modes of transport, ferry and railway companies enjoyed an unexpected bonanza, while some car-hire firms were reportedly hiking charges.
In the United Kingdom alone thirteen travel firms collapsed during the summer of 2010. The ash cloud disruption was cited as one of the contributing factors.
African economies
Kenya is reported to have destroyed 400 tonnes of flowers it was unable to airship into the UK on 19 and 20 April 2010. As a result, their economy was estimated to be incurring losses of $3.8m each day of the disruption. Thousands of Kenyan farm workers were temporarily laid off as harvesting of flowers and vegetables was stopped by 19 April due to the grounding of flights. The Kenya Flower Council said 3,000 tonnes of flowers were destroyed and the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya called the situation "disastrous".
Zambia's flower and vegetable industry lost about $150,000 (£98,000) a day. Other African industries, such as Uganda's fish and flower export businesses, were also affected by the lack of air freight.
Asian economies
Nissan declared a suspension in the production of three models in Japan on 21 April 2010 because supply of parts has been disrupted. It stopped production of 2,000 vehicles in two plants. Honda also announced a partial halt to production. Factories in China's Guangdong province saw air shipments of clothes and jewellery delayed. In South Korea, Samsung and LG were unable to air-freight more than 20% of their daily electronics exports and the Federation of Hong Kong Industries said hotels and restaurants in Hong Kong were facing shortages of European produce.
