THE volcanic eruptions in Iceland have devastated the Isle of Man’s air travel statistics for April.
The Airport saw a massive 23.5% fall in passengers, almost 13,000 down on April 2009, caused by the closure of the airport on several occasions due to the volcanic clouds over Britain.
Airport Director Ann Reynolds said the statistics were harder to take as the disruption happened just when the airport was showing signs of “steady recovery” during the early part of 2010.
And there has been a knock-on effect, caused by passengers feeling uncertain about future air services, resulting in caution about finalising travel plans, despite air services returning to normal very quickly. “As a result, the expected surge of air travellers anxious to rebook their flights has not been seen.”
Ms Reynolds admitted that this had been the hardest period that she could remember for airlines and airports in the British Isles. “The aviation industry has endured crises from time to time throughout its history, but I cannot recall such a challenging series of traumas as those experienced over the past two years,’ she admitted.
“The recession has been deeper and longer than expected and just as the Isle of Man’s airlines were beginning to rebuild traffic on our routes, the appalling UK winter weather caused a further setback to the recovery. With spring settling the weather problems, we were optimistic that April would produce an increase in traffic of about 4%, but this has been completely wiped out by the effect of the volcano, with almost a quarter of the month’s traffic lost.”
The collapse of the April Airport traffic has affected most of the Isle of Man routes, but there were some exceptions. The North West and London routes together lost more than 10,300 of the 14,000 total shortfall, with the Manchester and London City services posting reductions of more than 30%.
Manx2’s route to Blackpool, however, was able to continue to operate a shuttle service for some of the affected period because of the relatively low altitude that the aircraft was flown, and saw a 3.7% rise in passengers for the month.
Similarly, its Belfast City route was also kept largely operational and a 15% passenger increase resulted. Its Newcastle service also returned an extraordinary increase – of more than 30% - over the Eastern Airways’ operation in April 2009, whilst the Flybe Geneva route carried 12% more passengers.
“The added blow to our airlines has been the comparative caution from the travelling public to rebook their flights with the confidence that the disruption is now over,” she added. “The widely reported full flights, and of folks having to wait days and weeks to get a seat, just hasn’t happened on Isle of Man routes, primarily because many opted to make urgent journey to and from the Island by sea.
“The remainder seem to be literally waiting until the dust has settled over the eruption.”
The success of the summer season will be crucial for both the Island’s Airport and airlines, and a solid recovery is still possible, a point underlined by Minister for Infrastructure, Phil Gawne MHK.
“Whilst Isle of Man air travel has endured a succession of setbacks in recent months, the foundation of our air service network remains strong and the underlying trends in the early part of this year have indicated a steady return to growth,” he said.
“Our strategic approach has always been to steadily build the broadest range of sustainable air services possible to serve the Isle of Man’s needs. The fact that the network has remained intact throughout these difficult times is a strong testimony to this approach and indicative of the great commitment we have from our airlines.
“The challenge remains to be seen in what progress can be made during times of the volcanic ash, whilst ensuring that passenger safety is maintained and to work closely with our operators during these very difficult times.”
