欧洲的领空星期三重新开放。各家航空公司想方设法清理因大量冰岛火山灰云影响而停飞的积压航班。
欧盟的民航控制机构说，欧洲大约75%的航班将于星期三恢复，英国和德国的所有旅行限制都已解除。 安排运送滞留旅客预计还要几天的时间。
一名航空业官员说， 欧洲民航运输关闭六天造成至少17亿美元的损失。国际航空运输协会主席比西格尼星期三表示，机场关闭导致的经济影响是“惨重的”。他敦促欧洲政府设法帮助航空公司弥补收入损失。一些航空公司的执行官说，当局停飞的决定可能过于草率。
The skies over Europe reopened Wednesday as airlines scrambled to clear a backlog of flights grounded by a vast cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland.
The European air traffic control agency, Eurocontrol, says about 75 percent of scheduled flights will operate Wednesday. All travel restrictions have been lifted in Britain and Germany.The task of clearing the backlog of stranded passengers is expected to take days.
An industry official says airlines have lost at least $1.7 billion dollars due to the six-day shutdown. The head of the International Air Transport Association, Giovanni Bisignani, called the economic fallout “devastating” Wednesday, and he urged European governments to look for ways to help airlines recover from lost revenues.Some airline executives say authorities may have been too hasty to ground flights.