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The airspace situation in Europe continues to be restricted & extremely uncertain as a new eruption of the Iceland volcano had caused further dispersal of ash over the United Kingdom and northern Europe.
The announcement of the partial lifting of the flight ban over Europe last night (HK time) by EU Transport Ministers provided some hope that the situation was clearing, but the subsequent new volcanic eruption has changed the situation once again The latest official forecast for the spread of the ash shows no improvement to the situation, and aviation authorities in various parts of Europe have this morning issued what amounts to a no-fly zone over the affected area.
It is extremely difficult under these circumstances to plan resumption of our services, and Cathay Pacific would continue to monitor the situation on an hourly basis.
Safety and security is our top priority and we are working closely with various European authorities to try to re-activate a scheduled operation on a consistent and safe basis.
We are actively exploring alternate airports in Italy and Spain at the moment. We will communicate further details as operating plans are confirmed. The first few flights of resumption will be reserved for backlog clearance.
Bookings on our European services will be suspended until Monday 26Apr, 2010 1200 (HKT, GMT +8). We will monitor and review the situation closely and will issue further updates once more information becomes available.
From today onwards we will provide 2 X daily Status Updates to the trade at HKT 12:30 and 1700L and will provide additional updates in the event of salient developments.
Thank you for your patience and kind understanding.
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