15 years ago this week, Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted, spewing ash high into the atmosphere and wreaking havoc on commercial air traffic in Europe and over the North Atlantic Ocean. Aircraft were grounded and millions of passengers were left stranded, some for weeks.
Visualizing nothing
In April 2010, Flightradar24 was much smaller, but our coverage had grown throughout Europe and we were able to capture much of the closure and restart of air traffic as the ash threat subsided.
You can see the near total closure of Northern Europe to air traffic on 16 April, with just a few flights (including low level helicopter traffic operating to oil platforms). Traffic gradually increases between the 17th and 19th, finally seeing near-normal levels on the 20th.
Were you impacted by Eyjafjallajökull?
Were you impacted by the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull? We want to hear your experience in the comments below.
21 Responses
I was working at a car rental company at Hamburg Airport then… was a great feeling helping customers to get home…
Was in Germany but had a hire car so managed to change the drop off from DUS to Lille in north France on the Friday. The AVIS station there was chaos with cars with registration plates from nearly every country in Europe – when I asked the AVIS guy where I could leave the car he just gave a huge Gallic shrug so I just left it in the entry lane with just enough room for the barrier to drop down. Got a train to Dunkirk (which was like a refugee train with very tired half-term families returning from wherever) and ferry to Calais then train back to London. Heathrow was weird almost post-apocalyptic on the Saturday and I was approached twice asking what I was doing there. The valet parking team had a nightmare digging my car out but I got home only 16 hours later than if the flight had been operating.
I was on a three days city trip in Istanbul and we had to stay there for seven days, due to the eruption. Not so bad, because Istanbul is a beautiful city.
When we flew back, at the end, Pegasus Airlines let us buy a new ticket. What a shame!
Standing in the check in queue of the then South African Airlines in CPT to FRA and then to DUS, nothing went on. As usual without any explanation from the side of the airline. A passender behind me was surfing and suddenly came on the news of of an vulcano eruption on Iceland. One or two hours later we started but landed not in FRA but in MUC. Queues of other stranded people waited there. With a VIP Card I got one of the last cars and drove the 630 km home near DUS. Naturally in this case no compensation was paid.
We were stranded in Sharm el Sheikh for an extra week. Luckily we were in a 5* Hotel and TUI just extended our holiday. I had just retired, so not an issue for me, but a lot of people were desperate to get home for work or child care issues etc.
I was traveling from Chicago to the BAUMA exposition in Munich and associated Industry Association meetings in Salzburg. Flights started dropping and I looked for many options that dramatically disappeared. I almost had one through Rome (and would have trained) but it disappeared as I was booking it.
BAUMA went ahead with limited North American presence. The Salzburg meeting went ahead with limited presence as well. At that time, virtual meetings were around but had not been planned for so didn’t get to participate. One of my colleagues went a couple of days earlier and was able to go.
I was scheduled to return to Heathrow by Air Canada flight AC864 from Montreal on the evening of 16th May 2010.
The aircraft, B773 C-FIVR, was awaiting on the ramp. The gate lead then arrived on scene and gave the bad news that the flight was cancelled due to volcanic activity from Iceland. Air Canada were very good, and rebooked me on AC864 on the Tuesday 18th May. That flight departed with no problems. the aircraft being A333 C-GFAH
I was on a business trip to Norway when the volcano erupted. I was stranded for over a week. I caught one of the first flights from Stavanger to Oslo and Oslo to Chicago that opened up on SAS. I remember being really nervous, but everything turned out fine.
It was so eerie to not have any planes in the sky for so long!
As I was stranded over a weekend, my colleagues took me sightseeing around southwest Norway, which turned out to be a really great thing. Until then I had only been there on business, but never got to really see any of the beautiful countryside.
Our Budapest to Amsterdam cruise ship was only half full, as so many passengers couldn’t get there. Lots of Australians and New Zealanders missed out.
We were at a transit stop in Hong Kong en route from New Zealand to UK when at the airport and checked in we had news our Quantas flight was delayed. Quantas was brilliant and had everyone in a hotel by lunch providing a meal and room. For 6 nights we had a note to tell us what was happening. They offered free return to our home and a rebook at no cost. We were given 3 meals a day and really well looked after. Most people stayed on as it was at the end of the school holidays in UK with many returning home from Australia. Quantas 10 out of 10 for their response.
We flew into Hamburg for a trade show at Messe Hanover. When the show was over we drove back to Hamburg only to discover that the airport was closed to traffic due to the eruption. We then did “our very best” to find a flight home. This entailed trips across the Alps, to Belgium, the Netherlands and throughout continental Europe.We were “forced” to drink lots of beer and eat lots of food in our efforts to find a way back to the office. Finally we heard a rumor of an American Airlines test flight back. We rushed through normally tough security at Hamburg and onto the plane. The security force was entertained by our presence as was the flight crew but we got to go anyway. We took off and flew at VCR levels until we were well out over the Atlantic. When we climbed through to a proper flight level we celebrated with Champagne. We had know idea where we were going beyond it being the US. We ended up at O’Hare and then got our individual flights back to Pennsylvania, California and New York. I would volunteer to do it again a few times a year now that I’m retired.
Génial !
C’est super, j’adore !
I was in a taxi going to the airport to come home. The person sharing the taxi told me of a volcano eruption in Iceland. I thought very little of it and went for a coffe when I arrived at the airport.
Then the impact hit me as suddenly all flights were cancelled. I managed to get accomodation and went to the British Embassy for help. I ask what the law ref No. was to claim back my additional expenses from Air Malta. The Maltese woman was of no help I was left to my own devices.
Boat to Scicily and then train to euro tunnel or ferry? Thankfully the flights return and I was able to claim back all my additional expenses.
I was travelling back to Australia from U.K. after finishing a contract job in the North Sea, I got stuck in Amsterdam overnight, and it was really hard to find accommodation. It was chaos at Schipol! Getting a flight late the next day was a miracle.
Awesome timelapse.
For reasons I can’t even remember now, my late wife and I had delayed our honeymoon to The Dominion Republic for a month and the day before we were due to fly we received the dreaded phone call.
Husband and I were in the Netherlands on a local tour bus when the tour guide announced that the volcano had erupted. She embellished quite a bit making it sound like we were all going to die from the poisoned cloud! We did not, but all of our flights around Scandinavia were cancelled. We had to give up our trip to Norway but we were able to train from Amsterdam through Denmark, Sweden and Finland. It was quite an experience because the trains were packed. We waited three days in Copenhagen to get tickets to Stockholm. We felt like refugees! By the time we headed back to the States most flights were operating, although the cloud threat was shifting so flying wasn’t a sure thing. A Delta rep kindly gave me the phone number of the main desk at our exit airport so that I could find out if our flight home was actually going. There is a lot more to this tale! But suffice it to say that we finished our tour( we did get to Norway several years later) and what an adventure it was!
Me and 2 friends were in Nice. We had to hire a French car and drove to Lille hoping to get a train, 2 of them to London, me to Copenhagen. All trains full so the two hired another car and drove to Calais for a ferry and my in the original hire car onwards to Copenhagen. I dropped the hire car off in CPH and was charged £1700 for 28hrs hire but crossing international borders. In the queue at the hire car office was a guy who needed to get home to Paris, he was quoted the same price to take the car back to France! What a rip off
My wife was flying Atlanta-Amsterdam-Glasgow with KLM and was stranded at AMS. Once again the ‘Continent was cut off from Britain’. Determined to get home she decided to cross the Channel by ferry, only to find that none of the short crossing ferries from Zeebrugge or Calais would accept passengers without car, except for the Dieppe-Newhaven ferry. Dieppe was a journey from Amsterdam of 500km but she set out by train via Lille-Amiens then by ferry, train and bus to Glasgow, a journey of three days. My wife was and is a determined Southern Belle from Georgia not put off by some silly little dust from Iceland
Challenging, difficult, “adventurous” time for travellers and air services! Great assistance from some airlines👌, others not so helpful🥴.
It was great to hear how Qantas really assisted their passengers…hope it would do the same today?!
Amazing time lapse of the returning air flights🥰👌.
I flew over from the Netherlands to Dublin for a medical conference when the volcano erupted. There was no getting back by air, but all of us, being medical doctors with a lot of planned patient appointments and surgeries, had to get back in time no matter what. So after one extra night in Dublin in the weekend to get things organized, the great frenetic journey east started: by bus to the ferry terminal, by ferry from Ireland tot the UK, by bus to Saint Pancras station, train through the Eurotunnel, and again by bus to the Netherlands. Arrived back home after 18 hours of travel and just in time to start the workweek. Since then, this particular conference which is held every two years, has only been organized on the continent and without any flights involved.