IATA says volcano impact on airlines bigger than 9/11

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Monday European governments' response to the volcano crisis was inadequate and estimated its economic impact to be greater than the 2001 Sept 11 attacks.                                            
 

Giovanni Bisignani, head of the IATA airline industry body, estimated airline revenue losses were now reaching $250 million a day, up from an earlier estimate of $200 million on Friday.      
 

Bisignani called for urgent action to safely re-open airspace and called for a meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the United Nations aviation body.                                           

"We must move away from this blanket closure and find ways to flexibly open air space, step by step," Bisignani told a news briefing in Paris.                                           

"We have to make decisions based on the real situation and not on theoretical models. They (the authorities) have missed opportunities to fly safely," he said.