Volcanic ash responsible for 45% of European trip delay claims in 2010

One feature of this research was to allow claimants to indicate the primary reason why they had made a claim against their travel policy; given the time-period covered by the survey, these included various options which were specific to volcanic ash.

"Across all respondents covered by the European survey, travel insurance claims resulting directly from the chaos caused by the Icelandic eruptions of April 2010 accounted for 5.4% of all reported claims," commented Simon Tottman, a consultant at Finaccord.

"While this may, at first glance, appear relatively insignificant, it should be borne in mind that the air-traffic disruption caused by the volcanic ash lasted only a few weeks, whereas the survey as a whole was based on respondents' most recent trip undertaken during 2009 and 2010."

In overall terms, the most common reasons for submitting a travel insurance claim were lost, stolen or damaged baggage or belongings, medical expenses incurred while travelling, and accidents incurred while travelling.

None of these core areas of claims activity were specifically associated with volcanic ash. However, within the universe of claims relating to flight or trip delay and to trip cancellation, postponement or interruption, the volcanic ash cloud was seen to have had a substantial impact, and accounted for 44.6% of all such claims.

"The fact that last year's volcanic eruptions had a particularly strong effect on insurance claims related to trip delay and cancellation means that the latest situation could once again represent particularly bad news for distributors and underwriters of basic or ‘value' travel insurance policies, as these policies are often configured specifically to cover trip cancellation, either alone or in conjunction with a small number of other risks," added Mr Tottman.