Volcanic ash cost airlines more than $1.7bn: IATA

Berlin: Industry trade body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has dubbed the crisis caused by volcanic ash as ''devastating'' and estimates it has cost airlines revenues of more than $1.7 billion by Tuesday.

"For an industry that lost $9.4 billion last year and was forecast to lose a further $2.8 billion in 2010, this crisis is devastating," IATA director general and chief executive, Giovanni Bisignani, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Briefing the media in Berlin, Bisignani said he expects it will take the airline industry at least three years to recover from the volcano crisis.

Even as a volcano erupted last week in Iceland Europe shut down most of its airports fearing that volcanic ash spreading downstream with the wind would be ingested by aircraft engines and become a safety hazard. The decision left tens of thousands passengers stranded across the European Continent, as well as the globe, as flights linking other continents to Europe were grounded as a result.

Europe's pre-emptive action stranded not just business passengers and holidaymakers but also paralyzed freight and businesses around the world.

IATA now says that on the three days stretching over 17-19 April, when air traffic disruptions were at their peak, lost revenues reached $400 million per day. It says, at its peak the crisis affected 29 per cent of global aviation and 1.2 million passengers a day.