Iceland Volcano - Air Mail Traffic Affected?

Air traffic has been significantly cut, and grounded in European regions.

Does anyone know if regular mail service between Europe and the States has been significantly affected, or if southern alternative routes are being used?

I have items in postal transit...

 

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I would assume that mail between the US and Europe is as adversely affected as passenger traffic - if the country of origin/destination for the piece of mail has suspended air traffic over their borders. The post office of, say Britain, is not going to ship their US bound mail by rail to, for example, Spain, so it can be flown to the US from there.

Once a country opens their sky for air traffic the mail should begin moving, albeit slowly. I believe mail has a fairly high priority for belly space on passenger aircraft but it may depend on the contracts that exist between the carriers and the national postal service(s). I would have to ask the cargo experts in my office for further information.

 

We have a family friend who is here from Germany. He was supposed to go home yesterday, but he's still here today.

 

In France and Germany for example there has been no air traffic since Friday, and it won't be resumed until Sunday morning/noon. (But who knows, it may take even longer ...) So if what you are waiting for comes from Portugal or Spain, they should arrive as usual - if you are waiting for mail from any of the affected countries, expect some delays.

Here in Germany some airlines "transfer" aircraft (say from FRA to MUC) but those fly at low altitudes and without passengers. That would not be possible for planes with air mail as far as I know.

Christian

 

Its amazing how every thing is being affected, You would think that it wouldnt
Take much just to go around ??

 

"Approximately 600 trans-Atlantic flights take place each day, 300 in each direction. Of the 300 flights that would usually arrive in Europe, 73 flights arrived in Europe this morning." http://www.eurocontrol.int/corporate/public/news/20100417_ats_1630.html Within Europe you can of course try and use trains, rental cars, and other means of transportation. But across the Atlantic Ocean? Not much, or even less, that we can do about this ...

Christian

 

They are IN it, so they can't go around it. They would have to fly THROUGH it to get out of it.

 

I agree. I was thinking perhaps someone may know if alternative overland routes for local re-route of mail were being kicked-off. For example, out of UK to France via Chunnel, then on to Spain, etc., and then from there, across the Atlantic...

 

So which route do you propose they take to "just go around"? The plume is drifting towards and lingering over the regions affected... How do you "go around" when you can't fly into the affected region where air travel is necessary? Those who can return by car, train or ferry are doing so. Maybe some of the trans-Atlantic cruise boats can start taking some stranded folks if this keeps up.

 

Apparently I "spoke" too soon, at least where it concerns the British Royal Mail system!

From a BBC article I just found: "Royal Mail air mail deliveries to the US are being taken over land to be flown from a Spanish airport."

 

:thumb: Awesome! Thanks Farthing.

I have some specimens that I'm expecting from the UK that are due-in early next week. I'm very much looking forward to receiving them.

 

With all the fuel saved from cancelled flights, I wonder if gas prices will come down?

 

They'll probably say they don't have enough storage space, so they need to raise the prices to help build more tanks.

 

No, different type of fuel. Oh you might think "Well if they aren't using the jet fuel they could refine more into gasoline." That might be true, but it would take awhile to switch over, and then awhile longer before that additional fuel started causing prices to drop. By that time the airports may be open again and demand for jet feul would be back up and probably even higher for awhile. So the refineries would have to switch back. This switching back and forth, plus the production delays etc would have cost which would have to be passed along and which would probably result in a net increase in prices.

Now if the no fly period lasts a long time (months) it might make a difference. At first the jet fuel bunkers will be topped off until no more storage is available, then jet fuel production would be cut back (and jet fuel prices would fall.) Then they might switch to gasoline production. Even then I would not expect to see much of a price drop for gasoline for awhile.

 

fyi: Information is beautiful

Information is beautiful:

 

topic closed for straying beyond the realm of numismatics.

Please stay on topics guys. The PRWE forum was created exactly for threads like this one.