ISRAEL: Israeli travellers land at Ben Gurion Airport after being stranded in Europe because of volcanic ash cloud

Record ID: 397095

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israeli travellers land at Ben Gurion Airport after being stranded in Europe because of volcanic ash cloud
  • Date: 19th April 2010
  • Summary: BEN GURION AIRPORT, ISRAEL (APRIL 18, 2010) (REUTERS) PEOPLE STANDING OUTSIDE OF BEN GURION AIRPORT PASSENGERS ARRIVING WITH LUGGAGE PEOPLE WAITING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PASSENGER NISSIM BEN SHOHAM SAYING: "It was quite a mess, I was stuck in Milan, and since that time I tried to take the train and it didn't succeed because it was full. Finally I found the last
  • Embargoed: 4th May 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Travel / Tourism,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA6RAIMYG0M6S0739TBS38J9Y5
  • Story Text: Israelis landed in Ben Gurion airport on Sunday (April 18) after being stranded in Europe, as air travel across much of the continent was paralysed for a fourth day by a huge cloud of volcanic ash.
    Nissim Ben Shoham, an Israeli who was travelling in Italy, described his long journey home.
    "It was quite a mess, I was stuck in Milan, and since that time I tried to take the train and it didn't succeed because it was full. Finally I found the last car, a small autobianci, and I drove all the way to Rome and from Rome --I was patient-- and I flew with Alitalia because they confirmed and cancelled, confirmed and cancelled, and finally I think that I took the last plane here," he said.
    Another passenger, Miriam Akiva, flew out of Ben Gurion heading to Barcelona but more than halfway through the trip, the flight returned to Tel Aviv.
    "I flew to Barcelona and we came back. Why? I have no idea... we flew for four hours and cabinet say that the airport is closed, so we had to come back," she said.
    Ben Gurion airport manager, Shmuel Kandel, said that almost 200 flights were cancelled since the volcano erupted on Wednesday (April 14), stranding 40,000 passengers in Europe. He expected more cancellations and delays in the upcoming days.
    The clampdown on flights across much of Europe has been posing a growing problem for businesses including airlines, estimated to be losing $200 million a day, and thousands of travellers stranded worldwide.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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