THE IRONY OF A 21ST CENTURY HUMAN BEING

Following the first eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano, believed to be around 20th of March, the seismic activity continued and the ash coming out of it started to significantly disrupt European airspace in mid-April. The Icelandic tongue-twister caused airports in whole of Europe, including the Balkans, southern parts of Spain, Italy and Greece, to close. Many people, including students and staff at K.U.Leuven, were left stranded at their holiday or work destinations.

With Iceland being so close to Brussels’ two airports, it was impossible to fly back to Belgium. In a state of panic, people were trying to find suitable accommodation and any means of transportation (car, bus, ferry, train) back home. Daniel Burnfin, an American philosphy student tells: “I was stuck in Ohio, in the United States. So I lost my connection flight from Columbus (the state’s capital) to New York (where I would have gone to London from), as well as my return train faire from London to Brussels.” He stayed over for five days longer than intended. “It was a nightmare and I lost approximately 500 dollars in the process!” Daniel angrily says. “The airline and booking companies don’t seem to care at all. My losses were effectively just ‘too bad’, because it was a ‘natural catastrophe’”

FORCE MAJEURE?

Force majeure or not, due to the eruptions the aviation industry lost already about 1,7 billion dollars (1,265 billion euros). At the height of the crisis the affected airline companies lost about 400 million dollars per day. However, the total costs will rise even more as the companies will be confronted with extra costs for logies, food and transport costs for blocked travellers. Still the victims are generally not satisfied on how the airlines dealt with the situation. Kim Vande Perre, a Belgian linguistic student, who got stuck in Berlin and eventually took a train back home, complains: “the airline barely did anything actually, they only sent me an e-mail 1 hour prior to the departure of my flight that it was cancelled, even though it was 100% sure no planes would be flying already the day before!” “For the rest, I haven’t heard anything from them at all for a long time. Last week they finally let me know I would get my money for the flight back, but this could still take 2 or 3 weeks.” Daniel: “the airlines have taken their time in returning money, and because my ticket was bought through an English airline, I lost money in the exchange and not all of the tax (the bulk of the fee) is being returned. I am furious.”

IRONY

Bart Kerremans, professor of International Relations and American Politics got stuck in the Canadian city of Montréal, after a congress. Despite his misfortune and his will to go home –“if necessary I cross the ocean swimming!” - he found some time for reflection. After several refused attempts to convince the lady at the desk on the airport to overbook him to Madrid and wild plans to either swim or go as stowaway on a ship, the professor decided he “had to accept the inevitable and make the best out of it”. Luckily he still had his laptop and Skype. “But isn’t that ironic? In a world where technologically almost everything is possible, the airspace of an entire continent is closed for the sake of a volcano!” For the modern human being, stuck on a strange airport far from home laptop and Skype are the two things he clings to, Kerremans observed. “In Montréal there were as many sleeping bags to be counted as there were opened laptops. As if those latter could silence down the volcano. Just to say how dependent we have become of those things. They do not only provide us contact and communication, but also comfort and even consolation.”

Less consoling is the thought that Eyjafjallajökull erupted on-and-off for more than a year in 1612 and 1821-23. Knowing that, many are afraid of permanent flight disruption. That fear is constantly growing, backed up by the fact that in May the new ash cloud was making air traffic authorities cancel some flights. Our humble advice would be not to rely on luck, but book ground transportation for your next journey.|