Bulgaria's airlines have suffered losses worth EUR 1.3 M due to travel disruptions caused by the high-altitude ash billowing from an erupting Icelandic volcano.

“Bulgarian airlines have been incurred losses worth EUR 1,3 M due to the suspended flights across Europe,” Yovko Yotsev, representative of the Association of the Bulgarian airlines, told Darik radio.

The figure however does not include suspended flights, which had to be conducted by other airlines, contracted by the Bulgarian air companies.

At its peak, the crisis affected 1.2 million passengers a day and 29 percent of all global aviation, according to the International Air Transport Association.

It was the worst disruption of air traffic since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001. Following those attacks, the United States closed its air space for three days, forcing Europe to postpone all transatlantic flights.

In addition to clearing a massive backlog of passengers and cargo, airlines now face financial headaches as well as logistical ones.

The International Air Transport Association estimated Wednesday that the Icelandic volcano crisis cost airlines more than USD 1.7 B in lost revenue through Tuesday. Between Saturday and Monday, when disruptions were greatest, IATA said lost revenues reached USD 400 M each day.

The crisis began after the volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted Wednesday and sent a cloud of ash into the atmosphere. By the next day that cloud had reached Europe, where authorities quickly closed the airspace over safety fears.