In this week's Flight International, in our cover story flagged Under the volcano, David Learmount asks how ready the aviation sector, and those who regulate it, are for the next big one. The Icelandic volcano eruption earlier this year was a phenomenon that Europe's air traffic authorities were pitifully uprepared for and their default position was a complete closure of airspace that caused chaos for European business and tens of thousands of travellers, and knocked the recovery of the region's carriers back by several months. It cannot happen again was the clarion cry. But given that no one can even predict the next volcanic eruption, let alone influence the path its ash cloud takes, what measures - if any - have been put in place to stop the region grinding to a halt again?
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