Dear Nizar.. I doubt that any of us will forget the events of the last 13 days in a hurry. Who would have thought that the eruptions of a relatively small volcano in Iceland would cause such global chaos? … With 95,000 European flights cancelled and estimates of up to 1m people impacted by the volcanic ash, the disruption was unprecedented …

Given the scale and unique nature of this event, what has been achieved in terms of customer management and repatriation is quite remarkable. I wanted to write to thank you all, sincerely, for the very big part you have played in helping us to look after passengers and ensure their safe return. Your support and professionalism has been outstanding … you have worked tirelessly with local airlines to ensure our customers are re-booked on the earliest possible return flights. The evidence of this is clear, because within just 6 days of flights resuming, we have managed to repatriate 85% of our customers with the remainder to return in the next couple of days. This is a much better outcome than might have been expected – thanks to you…

In the meantime it remains only for me to, once again, express gratitude for the support you have shown and for the excellent co-operation that continues to exist between us- even in these most testing of circumstances.