At this time, most European airspaces are still closed. Most flights are still grounded. The EU and various governmental agencies have been trying to work out a solution to the current volcano caused air travel bans. The UK government is calling a meeting tomorrow morning to discuss. The EU has been doing some teleconferences to see what can be done. Airlines are test flying with no visible damage after flying through the ash clouds. Various travel organisations are now questioning the need for such drastic measures imposed by Eurocontrol.
Something has to give. The implications of this is now ranging from food produce to postal services. Everyone is losing out. Perhaps excepting alternative, ground-based transportation services. As much as I support getting stranded people home as quickly and as painlessly as possible, I hope operators like Eurostar and Thalys won't be trying to make a quick buck out of this.
At the current damage extent, airlines will be suffering tremendously. Added to their poor performance during the economic downturn, expect to see some requests for bail-outs by European governments to avert further disaster of losing more carriers.
Will it end? I think that's the biggest question now. We've long gone past asking "when?"
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