The longer restrictions are in place, the more airlines will push to be allowed to fly. I was due to fly from the UK to Qatar today, and I would much rather delay further than take any chances. Safety should be more important than profit.
You talk about profit as if it's something to be ashamed of. Facts are 1) if safety really was more important to you you wouldn't fly anywhere, you'd stay safely at home and 2) if there are fewer airlines operating then you personally will need to pay more for your ticket.
Profit is nothing to be ashamed of, but saying the skies are free of ash and safe to fly in because of a couple of test flights? It seems to me that the airlines are more scared of losing money than they are of losing planes.
Flying done properly is safer than crossing the street and I'm happy to take that risk. Flying through an ash cloud is not something that generally turns out good for aircraft engines; even if an initial inspection shows that all appears fine with the aircraft and first stage fan blades, a borescope inspection may reveal clogged turbine cooling air passages (see Grindle, T., J., and Burcham, Jr., F. W., 2002, Even Minor Volcanic Ash Encounters Can Cause Major Damage to Aircraft).
If once all this is done airlines feel the need to charge more for tickets then so be it - I'm happy to pay more if it's because of safety concerns.
No, but it does mean finding out what those conditions actually are (using satellite images and volunteer pilots) rather than relying computer models (guesswork at this stage).
