Commenting on the volcanic eruption in Iceland, Phil Cameron, CEO at No.1 Traveller (the UK’s leading operator of premium services at airports) says: “Travellers may not be able to avoid the ash cloud or the disruption it might bring, but they can be better prepared.  It’s absolutely worth continuing to book journeys, but make sure you know the terms of your ticket and any other reservations – including hotels and car hire. You need to know that you can rebook or get a refund, which is not always the case in these scenarios.  Another golden rule is to avoid travelling to an airport if it’s shut.  It’s not going to speed up the journey and you won’t get better information than you will online or from home.”

“Travel disruption can happen for any number of reasons, and the reality is that snow and strikes have caused greater disruption for passengers in the last year than volcanic ash.  It’s an unfortunate risk which passengers have to factor in to any booking.  It’s therefore important to have the flexibility to change plans, when necessary.

About the effect that ash disruption would have on his own company, he comments: “As the UK’s leading operator of premium services at airports, our business gets hit hard on those days when airports are closed. We build into our annual model several days of lost revenue, as airport closures are an inevitability at some point in any given year.  We use downtime to train our staff and we move to flexible scheduling, as we know demand for our services goes up significantly immediately after any airport closure.”