One in 10 Britons will postpone holidays due to ash crisis

As many as ten per cent of Britons are considering postponing their next overseas holiday because of the ash crisis which grounded flights to and from Europe for six days.

More than half of the people questioned in a recent survey said the closure of UK airspace earlier this month due to fears that ash from the Icelandic volcano would cause aircraft to crash had put them off flying.

One in five of those quizzed had been forced to cancel or postpone trips when UK airports were shut down as the ash cloud spread across Europe. Almost three million British adults were affected by the flying ban.

Of the 1,000plus travellers who responded to the survey, 16 per cent said they would consider alternative means of transport, such as driving or taking the train or the ferry to Continental Europe or booking an ex-UK cruise.

A little over a third of the people interviewed said they or a family member were stranded overseas when UK airports were closed; a quarter said they had lost their holidays or been forced to delay their departure because of the ash cloud.

Interestingly, there was overwhelming support for the government's decision to close UK airspace for as long as it did, even though it was subsequently found that the levels of ash over Europe did not affect normal aircraft operations.

Travel experts are confident that as long as there are no further eruptions from the volcano, holiday bookings will return to normal within the next few weeks.

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