Dubai: Etihad Airways has had to alter some flight paths following Saturday’s partial closure of Icelandic airspace, the airline said in a statement on Sunday.
“Etihad Airways’ European and trans-Atlantic flights are operating to schedule with some minor changes to trans-Atlantic flight paths avoiding the closed Icelandic airspace,” a spokesperson told Gulf News in an email.
Iceland closed airspace near the Bardarbunga volcano, located in the centre of the country, on Saturday when the Meteorological Office raised the aviation alert at Bardarbunga to “red”.
Authorities had feared an eruption was imminent, however, on Sunday the alert was downgraded to “orange”.
Etihad said it is closely monitoring the situation and has developed contingency plans “for possible flight disruptions in the event the Bardarbunga volcano erupts.”
In 2010, the eruption of a different Icelandic volcano led to millions of passengers stranded around the world as European airspace was shut down. Global airlines lost $1.7 billion (Dh6.2 billion) in revenue because of the 2010 eruption, the International Air Transport Association said at the time.
An Emirates spokesperson said that the airline is also closely monitoring the situation in Iceland but that its “operations to and from northern Europe are operating normally.”
