Facing nature's fury

As I write this, airports are still predominantly closed in Europe & Russia. Except for Spain, which has become the air traffic hub nowadays. Strange how a volcanic eruption way up north, among the icy wilderness in Iceland, can cause far-flung havoc and misery in today’s reality of a Global Village.

Consider 17 countries closed their air spaces, stranding 7 million passengers worldwide, 750,000 of which are within Europe. 

Consider how many small and medium airlines do not have business in the last eight days, with no money to cover their overheads. How many of them will have to close?

Consider the other alternatives to air travel for these stranded passengers, which are cars, buses, trains and sea ferries. Yet, because of the convenience of air travel, these passengers are far, far away from their homes. An elderly couple had taken all sorts of transport – even a train in Bucharest -- but it took them almost four days to get back to London.

Iceland’s president, in a BBC interview, became philosophical when he took on Nature “the formidable” and urged stranded passengers to take other forms of transportation to get back home. Then, he further said, while on the road “we should take time to reflect” on man’s close relationship with nature.

Due to the unexpected catastrophe, it has taken the 27 EU transport ministers five days to set up a teleconference to come up with solutions to the burgeoning economic backlash the ash fall is causing. The closing of airports means a loss of US$200 million/day in revenues. With the airline industry’s loss last year of about $2 – 3 billion, the travel trade has been experiencing a slow but positive recovery this year. Then this debacle.

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown took action when he deployed the ships of the British Royal Navy to pick up stranded British nationals in the US, Iceland, and Asia. Then those in Spain will be brought back home. That is proactive leadership at work.

Meanwhile, frenetic airports, like Heathrow with 1,000 take-offs and landings per day, seem like ghost towns with the passengers slowly finding their way to hotels or other means of transportation. The costs are rising all around, on the stranded passengers, on the airlines, on the airports, on the employees involved, on the governments affected, etc.

It is time to consider alternative means of transportation. After all, air travel has become not only expensive but inconvenient, what with the stringent baggage allowance airlines impose on the ordinary traveler. After all, going green is the order of the day and airplanes cause the greatest carbon emission. Finally, embarking on a journey is not so much the destination as the way of getting there, after all.

Hey, it is better to get on a not so slow boat to anywhere, as I wrote here some months ago. Ferries are clean, fast, and affordable. Then, you can have your bags according to your fancy. And you can’t help but take time to look into yourself while on the way to somewhere, or reinforce friendships or bond with loved ones. That, I think, makes traveling a joy.