B1CEFRReading15 min

Reading: The 2010 Ash Cloud Crisis

Missed chances and travel mishaps

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15 Min Lesson • IELTS Reading B1 Unit: Missed Chances & Travel Mishaps

🌋 The Day Europe Stopped Flying

An interactive reading module on the 2010 volcanic ash crisis and how European airspace stood still.

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How to use this lesson

FOR TEACHERS

• Guide students through the 4-paragraph text in 15 minutes, focussing on main ideas and scanning skills.

• Use the built-in evidence key after completion to review distractor patterns and verify evidence citations.

FOR LEARNERS

• First, read paragraphs A to D carefully to understand the timeline and impact of the flight disruptions.

• Next, answer the 8 IELTS-style practice questions below and read the detailed evidence explanations.

Reading Passage

Volcanic Ash and European Airspace

IELTS Style Passage

On 14 April 2010 a cloud of ash from a volcano in Iceland spread south and east. National authorities began to close much of the airspace over Europe. EUROCONTROL, the organisation that helps to run air traffic in Europe, shared each closing and each re-opening and helped to manage the flow of flights.

EUROCONTROL says that the main days of the crisis were 15 to 22 April. It estimates that 104,000 flights did not go in those eight days, which is 48 percent of the flights that people expected.

The worst day was Sunday 18 April, when there were 80 percent fewer flights than expected. EUROCONTROL says that there were fewer than 5,000 flights that day, compared with 24,700 on the Sunday before.

EUROCONTROL says that the 104,000 flights would have carried around 10 million passengers. It says that the number of people was lower, because many people had both the trip out and the trip back changed. Taken all together, the number of flights did not get back to normal levels until Friday 23 April.

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Why this works

When talking about missed chances or events in the past that did not happen, we use this sentence structure:

"If we had checked the weather, we would have taken a warmer coat."

Notice how paragraph D also talks about past unreal situations: "the 104,000 flights would have carried around 10 million passengers" (meaning the flights were cancelled, so they did not carry those passengers).

IELTS Reading Practice (Questions 1–8)

Answer all eight questions based on the reading passage above.

Questions 1–3

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. European airspace closures started after the volcanic ash moved south and east.

____ TRUE ____ FALSE ____ NOT GIVEN

2. All flights across Europe were cancelled during the eight main days of the crisis.

____ TRUE ____ FALSE ____ NOT GIVEN

3. Thousands of stranded passengers had to sleep in airport hotels during the disruption.

____ TRUE ____ FALSE ____ NOT GIVEN

Questions 4–5

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

4. Why was the actual number of individual people affected lower than 10 million?

____ A. Many travelers had both their outgoing and return flights changed. ____ B. Many people cancelled their trips before the volcano erupted. ____ C. EUROCONTROL arranged alternative bus and train transport. ____ D. Some flights operated with extra passenger seats available.

5. What does the passage indicate about EUROCONTROL's role during the crisis?

____ A. It directly made decisions to close national airports in Iceland. ____ B. It shared updates on airspace status and managed flight traffic. ____ C. It paid financial compensation to affected passengers. ____ D. It forced national authorities to open airspace after eight days.