A survey by Adrian Cooper of Oxford Economics unveils the impact of the volcanic ash on the global economy. The survey was presented during the WTTC Summit in Beijing this May.

The eruption volcano Eyjafjallajokull on 14 April, 2010 caused the largest breakdown in European civil aviation since World War II over the course of one week. The survey presents the dramatic losses in aviation, hospitality, trade, and corporate sectors around the world.

Over 100,000 flights cancelled in one week and more than 7 million passengers affected. The chart presents the decline of that week compare to the previous week.

All the economies around the world were affected. The worst was the impact on the GPS of Europe that reached 2,632 million USD in one week, followed by the American with 957 million USD. Middle East and Africa (MEAF) and Asia were less affected with 591 million USD and 517 million USD respectively.

This crisis affects not only the travel related sector, but also all the economic sectors. The worst is that it is characterized as an ongoing crisis. The impacts on travel were massive. Except of the main shutdown of the airports in the first week, another 5,000 flights have been sporadically cancelled. This would add an additional 5% to the first week impacts on the basis of cancelled flights – ie $250m extra lost GDP. As a result, to total cost of lost GDP is estimated now to 5 billion USD. “And these effects are continuing, creating ongoing uncertainty over future flight schedules which is damaging the global economy”, mentioned Mr Adrian Cooper at his speech.