Issues with Air Freight from USA

Issues with Air Freight from USA:

As you may already know, COVID-19 is having a major impact on the air freight industry globally. It has made airlines cancel majority of their passenger flights, convert passenger planes into cargo only aircrafts, lay-off staff etc. All these actions are having a direct impact on air freight shipments in the form of exaggerated prices, service delays and limited space availability.

According to the latest update we have received from USA, there is a massive backlog of about 200T cargo in Los Angeles on deferred air service. Various reasons have contributed to this including the shutdown of Virgin’s operations, cancellation of passenger flights on this route, a surge in the demand for cost-effective deferred air freight service and hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean. We have experienced significant delays on an already slow deferred service in the last few weeks. One of the deferred airlines is also experiencing internal system issues with regards to cargo tracking. As a result of all these issues, airlines have stopped accepting any more bookings on deferred service till the backlog is cleared. These issues are also pertinent to some courier services.

Vessel Delays in Australia:

Apart from the air freight issue described above, we have received notices from some shipping lines advising the delays caused by severe weather in the past few weeks and the industrial actions at different terminals, particularly at the Sydney port. Some vessels are expected to be delayed by up to 5 days from their planned schedule.

We will keep you updated as we hear further.