Infratil Ltd said its two airports in the United Kingdom are getting on with maintenance work and staff are taking holidays while the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano prevents flights from operating.The Wellington-based infrastructure investment compan
Infratil Ltd said its two airports in the United Kingdom are getting on with maintenance work and staff are taking holidays while the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano prevents flights from operating.
The Wellington-based infrastructure investment company owns the Glasgow Prestwick Airport in Scotland and Kent International Airport 110km east of London.
When the crisis began last week Glasgow Prestwick handled some British Airways long haul flights which could not make it to London. The airport has one of the longest runways in the UK and is used when large aircraft are diverted from major airports.
Kent Airport handles a lot of freight aircraft and is a key part of the fresh produce supply chain to the UK, which has been disrupted.
"Infratil's airports are virtually closed like all airports in the UK," said Steve Fitzgerald, chief executive of Infratil Airports.
He does not expect the disruption to have a material impact on Infratil.
"At this stage it is certainly not material from an Infratil point of view and it is probably not overly material for those businesses. But the longer this drags on the harder it gets and the more people will permanently cancel their travel rather than just delay it," he said.
"There's nothing we can do about a volcanic ash cloud in Europe."
The team at Glasgow Prestwick was using the time to do maintenance on equipment. "They are trying to keep busy and make the best of it," he said.
Staff were taking leave to keep the cost impact down, he said.
"The expectation is that it will still be another couple of days at least before things start to get back to normal," he said.
British airports remained closed today and forecasters say that the cloud of ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano could remain over Britain until at least the end of the week, media reported.
Shortages of fresh fruit and vegetables have been reported in UK shops.
"We are a key part of that fruit and vegetable supply chain," Mr Fitzgerald said.
Kent Airport handles about 3 million kilograms of fruit and vegetables and flowers a year.
Glasgow Prestwick handled a lot of leisure flights on carriers like Ryan Air. The holidaymakers make still travel but do so later on fuller flights.
