Iceland Volcano's Impact on Spain

Over the last week, a volcano erupted in Iceland and the volcanic ash has shut down airports across all of Europe, especially the northern parts. Great Britain and Germany have been especially hurt, with airports shut down for days at a time. Although Spain is relatively southern for Europe, it is still not unaffected by the volcanic activity. In a recent La Vanguardia article, the author states that Spain's tourist industry, which is a huge part of the economy, has already lost 252 million Euros due to canceled flights and the like. The vice president of a major airline, Jose Zoreda, is quoted as saying that the airline industry is losing 42 million euros per day that the airports are shut down. As the article points out, even though the volcanic ash is not in the Spanish air space, tourism is so crucial for Spain that canceled flights greatly hurt the economy. People flying from Britain, Germany, and Switzerland are unable to get into Spain, which creates major losses for Spain. This volcano has affected me personally because this last weekend we took a trip to Munich, Germany. On the first day of our trip, we got news that some volcano had erupted in Iceland and were sorely unaware of the consequences that this would have on us. The next day, we realized that the Munich airport was going to be closed the following day and our flight was going to be canceled. With one day left in Munich, we scrambled to find an alternate mode of transportation. Fortunately, we were able to charter a bus to take a large group of us home. Unfortunately, the bus ride was a nice and quick 17 hours. Although we made it home in time, the volcano really ruined the end of my Munich trip. But we were left with a unique memory of our European travels.