Airport congestion and lack of personnel make causing impossible for goods delivery to places in the US and Europe

Airport congestion and lack of personnel make it impossible for goods to be delivered in many places (Image: ACI)

Efforts by air cargo operators to ask forwarders to attempt weekend pickup are failing.

While congestion at some airports, notably Amsterdam and Chicago O'Hare, has eased, operators say one of the biggest problems is the lack of cargo activity from Friday to Monday.

“We are experiencing cargo not being picked up by forwarders – that’s a sweeping statement, but in general, dwell times are increasing,” said Robert Fordree, head of cargo for Menzies. Overall, cargo time at the airport is increasing. "Forwarders are struggling to get drivers, and their warehouses are full too." said Robert Fordree.

"We have looked at increasing storage charges, but it’s really a logjam everywhere, and wouldn’t change anything."

Another company said it has set up its own operations to assist with deliveries directly to forwarders, but said: “But then, there is no space at their end. Forwarders are congested too."

“We doubled our storage charges, and then did it again, but still no one picked up the freight. It’s caused congestion in our warehouses and it’s been chaos.”

Forwarders can also expect airport handling charges (THC) to increase next year.

A senior manager said: “Our airline contracts don’t even cover the cost of our people.” “You will never be able to sustain this business if you only charge the airlines. You cannot survive without THC.”

Meanwhile, forwarders are also giving headaches to miners. A video showing a large amount of cargo being left on the airside at Heathrow went viral last week, prompting complaints from forwarders, who blame the operators.

But one of the challenges at Heathrow is that in-flight cargo has to be moved by truck to get through the cargo tunnel at the airport, which requires different drivers.

And the whole aviation industry is short of workers. WFS - which said yesterday it is investing in a new cargo terminal in Copenhagen - is said to be short of about 1,500 employees in the US, although a source said the situation is improving.

Mr. Fordree said: “There are lots of labour challenges.” "Everyone is fighting for the same fish, so congestion is now in part due to labour availability, experience and knowledge.”

The restoration of some passenger services is also causing problems. Accenture's Seabury said yesterday morning capacity between the UK and the US was up 21% since the US fully opened its borders this month, although other European destinations have not seen a comparable increase in capacity. But operators say passenger flights are less likely to change schedules and passenger airlines tend to be less flexible.

Mr. Fordree said: “Those carriers that do cargo, and have done cargo for a long time, know you just can’t keep sending it in when there is congestion – we’ve had some sensible conversations with global carriers".

"What we have seen is that where airlines operate passenger freighters, or passenger operations with few passengers, they are more amenable to adjusting their schedules, especially to hubs."

"But as passengers start to come back, airlines do what the passengers want, and we have less ability to flex schedules."

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Source: Phaata.com (According to The Loadstar)

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