ZURICH – The air traffic chaos in Europe because of the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull kept the International Ice Hockey Federation busy for many days as the closed airspace in Europe became a concern for several tournaments and the teams and staff travelling to and from the events.
The toughest moment the IIHF had was when all flights from Great Britain were cancelled before the suspension of flight operations reached the rest of Europe. One of the cancelled flights was to take the British national team to the Division I World Championship in Slovenia.
The team faced a long waiting list on train connections so settled for a ferry across English Channel by ferry and then continued on a bus. The first game of the tournament was switched with the second and the team arrived just in time for that game after a 26-hour bus ride – and earned a win, 4-1.
Two referees also missed the same tournament because of cancelled flights. Slovenian referee Viki Trilar joined the team of on-ice officials and the tournament was called with three referees.
The statistics manager arrived at Bucharest airport at 4am the day before the tournament to take a plane to Slovenia when he was informed that all flights were cancelled. He returned home and the headed out by car. 1,300 kilometres and 15 hours later he arrived in Slovenia.
The tournament doctor arrived in Munich from Turkey for his transfer flight to Slovenia when he was informed that all flight operations would be stopped and he had to wait. The airport staff gave him a train ticket to the city centre where he caught a bus to Slovenia and arrived many hours later.
The referee supervisor had his flight from Berlin to Ljubljana cancelled. He took his car on Friday morning and drove to Ljubljana, arriving there at 21:00, just in time for the first meeting with the on-ice officials – or those who were already there.
The event manager who was supposed to be both in Ljubljana for the beginning of the tournament before leaving for the other group in Tilburg had to change plans because the flight was cancelled and she returned from Ljubljana to the IIHF headquarters with the first flight back to Zurich three days later.
The representatives of the IIHF’s marketing partner Infront were also challenged as their flights out of Ljubljana were cancelled. They hired a rental car and drove from Ljubljana to Innsbruck, and from there they took the train to Switzerland.
The marketing manager in Belarus for the World U18 Championship had planned to go to Tilburg for the start of the Division I event but couldn’t travel to the Netherlands. He had daily journeys to Minsk airport before a plane finally took off for his journey back to Zurich via Vienna after a few days.
The teams from Division I Group A also were challenged, but had two more days to overcome the flight problems compared to the other group.
Lithuania had a 48-hour bus trip to reach its destination Tilburg including one night in a hotel in Germany en route. The team arrived midnight before its first game.
Ukraine also travelled 2,500 kilometres by bus. 35 seats had to be enough for 30 people including the equipment and little room to sleep.
Japan was already in Europe before the problems started thanks to a pre-competition camp in Slovenia, but they were without the team doctor and physiotherapist.
Only the host team and the Austrian national team that arrived earlier for an exhibition game in the Netherlands avoided problems.
The chairman of the tournament also couldn’t fly from Great Britain to the Netherlands and came by train in right time.
One tier below, the Icelandic ash arrived in Europe when the Division II Group B in Estonia ended. The chairman of the tournament travelled home from Tallinn to Munich via Vienna by train and arrived after 40 hours.
Of all teams the Icelandic national team had the most luck. While there was concern in Europe, the airport of the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik on the other side of the island was not touched by the ash and the Icelandic team was the first to arrive home from Estonia.
Division II Group B in Mexico City kept several teams and the chairman stuck for a long time.
The Belgium men’s national team and its federation were hit hard. The Belgians were stuck on the American continent and arrived back home in two different flights exactly one week later and with about €16,000 of additional cost for accommodation.
The chairman of the Division III Group B in Armenia managed to fly to Prague, the only airport that was operating in Central Europe at that time, together with his wife and a game official and took a taxi back to Zurich for €700.
The challenges hit also people off the ice. The IIHF general secretary and communications director attended meetings in Toronto on April 15. The general secretary left the same evening and was, luckily, on one of the last flights that left North America for Europe.
The communications director was scheduled to leave the next day, the day the cancellation chaos started and accidently the same day as the Stanley Cup playoffs were scheduled to begin. He stayed more days in the city where, unfortunately, Stanley Cup playoff hockey has not been played for five years. After watching nine games on television, he departed Toronto.
Also several exhibition games in view of the 2010 IIHF World Championship were in jeopardy, like France’s trip to Latvia or Russia’s journey to Italy. At the end it worked out well in most cases. Of Finland’s two games in Denmark at least the second could be played. The only big cancellation involved a four-nation tournament in Minsk with Belarus, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland. Instead, the Slovak and Swiss teams travelled to Germany by bus for a mini-tournament.
Compiled by IIHF.com staff
