BMW Under the Ash Cloud: 3 German Plants Idled

It was only a matter of time until the flight ban in Europe would take it's toll on the day-by-day operations of local carmakers. Although the ash cloud coming from Eyjafjallajokull is dissipating, the effects are already visible.

According to Autonews, citing BMW spokesman Mathias Schmidt, three German plants will be idled for one day as a result of supply shortage.

The Dingolfing facility (produces 5 and 7 Series) has been idled starting with the late shift yesterday (April 20), while the plant in Munich which assembles the 3 Series and the one in Regensburg, in charge with the production of the 1 Series and Z4 will stop production today.

BMW hopes to have all three facilities up and running on April 23. According to the carmaker, the decision, made due to the lack of interior and electronic parts, will cause delays in the production of some 7,000 vehicles.

The ash cloud also caused BMW’s Spartanburg plant to slow production, due to the lack of air deliveries of transmissions. On Monday, BMW announced workers it would slow production while maintaining its normal shift schedule and take extraordinary measures to ship transmissions to southern Europe for flights to the U.S. to maintain production.

The flight ban over Europe largely ended yesterday, after several days of empty skies and millions of euros in losses. It is estimated the ban grounded 81,000 flights. Ash from the Icelandic volcano has interrupted trans-Atlantic flights for five days, affecting travelers and disrupting businesses.