Airlines won't put price on cost of disruption

AURIGNY, Blue Islands and Flybe are not saying how much the volcanic ash cloud crisis cost them.

A statement released yesterday by EU transport commissioner Siim Kallas put the total cost to the aviation industry and tour operators at around £2.2bn.

Blue Islands said it had a policy of not publicly providing commercial financial information, while Flybe said that as it was a privately owned company it would not go into financial details.

There had been reports that the chaos, which lasted six days, had cost States-owned Aurigny between £50,000 and £60,000 per day.

But yesterday commercial director Malcolm Coupar said it was still too early to state a figure as there was a lot of correspondence yet to be processed. 'Any figure we give would be a guess at this stage.'

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