However it's not just holidaymakers that will be impacted by this eruption disruption, many business people planning to fly to and from meetings will also be affected. Some could even be left stranded overseas, waiting for usual services to be resumed. To keep disruption to a minimum, Virgin Media Business is advising businesses to conduct virtual meetings instead where possible.
Alistair McKinnon, Senior Product Manager - IP Multimedia, Virgin Media Business said, "Today's disruption serves as yet another reminder that businesses need to put contingency plans in place to deal with unforeseen events. If workers are unable to travel to meetings or to the office, the effects on project deadlines and productivity can be considerable. Yet this can often be avoided, by employing remote collaboration tools, such as videoconferencing, teleconferencing and desktop sharing, which allow workers to meet up virtually. Workers that are stranded in airports could even continue to work, by securely connecting to a Virtual Private Network over Wi-Fi."
"Companies that already use remote collaboration tools on a daily basis will be well aware of the cost and time savings that can be generated by meeting virtually. Significant reductions can be made to the amount of time that staff spend travelling to and from meetings, and the cost of flights and train tickets can also be cut. All businesses face unexpected disruption like this from time to time, yet while it may be impossible to predict the next big event that will impact your business, that does not mean that you cannot prepare for it in advance."