It’s heartbreaking watching the news today. As we stare open mouthed at our televisions it’s hard to imagine the magnitude of what has happened in Japan and what is about to happen in the rest of the Pacific. Tidal wave alerts are in force in Russia, Hawaii, The Philippines, Indonesia, Alaska, Central America and even South America. The Tsunami that resulted from the largest earthquake to hit the country since records began over a hundred years ago has already hit the north east coast of Japan. Its magnitude has been put at 8.8 on the Richter scale with some reports putting the wave height of the tsunami at 10 metres. To give it some scale the earthquake that hit Christchurch last month was 6.3.

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Actuaries are a conservative bunch. It’s said that they’re the ones that found accounting and insurance a little too exciting. They spend their days among tables and charts that they use to calculate the risk of you and me falling under a bus before giving us life insurance. They spend their lives calculating whether that risk is worth taking. They’re the ones, like the man in the Treasury that holds the purse strings, that have to say “no”. They must have (more…)

It seems like British Airways’ long-running dispute with its cabin crew is some way from being resolved. A series of strikes was announced by the Unite union to begin on 18th May until 24th May. Legal action by BA on 18th May cancelled them on the basis that the union had not informed its members that 11 votes had been spoiled.  The union appealed and 2 days later the strikes were back on. As things now stand, further strikes will be held on 24th – 28th May, 30th May – 3rd June and 5th – 9th June. The union also said it would hold a further ballot for industrial action over the company’s conduct during the dispute. (more…)

I seem to have done nothing but write about volcanic ash recently. It caused unprecedented problems 3 weeks ago shutting airports in Northern Europe. People were stranded across the world unable to get back home and to work. International sports events were disrupted and the world’s leaders had to cancel plans to attend the recent funerals of the Polish presidential couple killed in an air crash in Russia. (more…)

No Iceland, we said cash…

Unless you’ve just come back from a stay on Mars, it won’t have escaped your notice that air traffic in large parts of Western Europe has ground to a halt because of large quantities of ash being spewed out by a volcano called Eyjafjallajokull (yes, that’s it’s name) in Iceland. (more…)

You may be a little concerned by the recent turn of events at British Airways. Legal action and reconciliation notwithstanding, the company is considering cancelling large chunks of its timetable over the Christmas period following a vote for strike action by its cabin staff.

Assuming the strike goes ahead, this will mean extensive cancellations and re-booking and consequently a large number of insurance claims due to travel delays that are widely expected. (more…)