Like all good socialist companies, the airlines want compensation from someone, probably governments, for their losses. This means tax dollars. Airlines did say up front, however, that they got into the bloody business just as fair-weather participants, so they should be compensated.
Like all good socialist citizens, the travellers inconvenienced by a volcano want compensation, probably from the government, or possibly from a consortium of insurance companies, who had a pool of $ somewhere for just such a contingency: a dusty-day fund, as it were.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8634276.stm
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has confirmed that the guidelines regarding flying through volcanic ash have been changed, following six days of discussions between aviation engineers and experts to "find a way to tackle this immense challenge, unknown in the UK and Europe in living memory".
A spokeswoman from the CAA told BBC News: "Air manufacturers, both engine and airframe, were asked to look at the scientific evidence from test flights and at the Met Office data, to understand how much volcanic ash in the atmosphere… jet engines could tolerate [without being] damaged."
Now, scientists and engineers have agreed a safe threshold - a concentration of ash of 0.002g per cubic metre of air. At or below this concentration, there is no damage to the engine.
Notice there are 6 days of discuss, not research...more like negotiations. Furthermore, I would feel a bit better with the ash concentration figures, if it could be demonstrated to me that all volcanic ash is uniformly distributed through the atmosphere, particularly that portion of the atmosphere through which I am to fly. I am sure that no one wants to stumble across that section of air where the concentration is 0.006 g per cubic metre of air.
I sense we may discuss this again, after the next volcano erupts, and the airlines blithely keep flying.
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