U.S.airlinesareseeingamajorinterruptionbecauseofhundredsofflightscanceledduetotheashcloudfromtheIcelandicvolcanobutEuropeanflightcompanieswillfacethebiggestlosses.Theairlinebusinesshasbeentough:T

题目详情

U.S. airlines are seeing a major interruption because of hundreds of flights canceled due to the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano but European flight companies will face the biggest losses.

The airline business has been tough: The decline dramatically slowed traffic; February heavy snow forced U.S. airlines to cancel thousands of flights; and now the ashes from the volcano stopped all traffic in and out of northern Europe for days.

"For U.S. flight companies it'll be a relatively short-term hit " said Michael Boyd president of Boyd Group International an aviation (航空学) consulting firm. "We think right now they're down about $80 million in terms of lost income and they're down domestically about 80 000 passengers that would have been flying domestically but aren't because they can't get here."

Delta announced that volcano-related interruption grounded about 400 flights until Monday at a cost of $20 million in lost revenues. But compare that to the recent snowstorms when the airline canceled 7 000 flights and lost $65 million in revenue.

The disruption has created uncertainty for customers but analysts say U.S. airlines won't face as many costs as you might think. They are not flying in extra planes to handle the passengers in trouble because airline analyst Robert Mann said companies simply don't have them.

"Airlines run a very lean operation now " Mann said. "So since there are no spare aircraft or crews the airlines will attempt to maximize loads on every one of their aircraft that do fly. But it may take days or in some cases a week or so to get some of these customers to where they want to go."

1.Which negative consequences mentioned in the passage did the disasters cause?

A. coldness pollution and airlines’ losses

B. airport damage pollution and slow traffic

C. passenger delay coldness and airport damage

D. passenger delay airlines’ losses and slow traffic

2.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A. The fewest airplanes will fly the trapped passengers to their destinations.

B. All the customers are sure to be sent to their destinations in time.

C. The U.S. and U.K. airlines suffered the same losses in the natural disasters.

D. The volcano eruption reduced the traffic to and from northern Europe.

3.What does the last paragraph mainly tell us?

A. the troubles that the airlines will face after the ash cloud disappears