Volcanic cloud cost US economy 650 million dollars: report

WASHINGTON, April 20, 2010 (AFP) - The disruption of cancelled flights due to the volcanic ash cloud that cut off European airspace has cost the US economy 650 million dollars, affecting some 6,000 jobs in the United States, the US Travel Association said Tuesday.

"The loss to the economy -- averaging 130 million dollars per day -- vividly illustrates how the world has come to depend on travel for tourism and business of all kinds," the association said.

An "overreaction" of authorities must be taken into account when deciding to shut down such a vital vein of the world economy, added US Travel Association president Roger Dow.

"While safety must always be the primary consideration, economies, particularly those recovering from recession, cannot afford an overreaction that stifles travel completely," he said.

"Given the results of test flights in recent days, European leaders have appropriately questioned the process that led to broad restrictions on air travel before clear evidence was available to indicate they were necessary."

Carriers between Europe and the United States have seen around 78 percent of their flights cancelled in the last five days, said the group, noting that each US-bound flight can be seen to average 450,000 dollars in spending by travelers to the economy, which they said amounts to supporting five jobs per flight.

European authorities earlier Tuesday eased its aerial lockdown prompted by the Icelandic ash cloud with almost half of its scheduled flights taking to the skies.


by Sam Reeves
(c) 2010 AFP