Christmas air deliveries hit by Covid

Christmas deliveries are likely to be delayed this year because of the pandemic’s impact on air travel, according to cargo experts. The plunge in traveller numbers due to Covid-19 restrictions has sent air freight rates soaring and slashed cargo capacity, according to freight forwarding company Flexport, as airlines cancel flights or switch to using smaller planes. Supply chain disruption means that goods are likely to be wrongly described because they are being advertised so long before they arrive at retailers, says Flexport, which co-ordinates international shipments for businesses. Another wave of Covid-19 restrictions will also see the price of personal protective equipment spike up again, according to Flexport director, David Wystrach, as some items are still travelling by air. Data collected by TAC Index, a Hong Kong-based air cargo pricing data company, showed that although air freight rates were falling from their May peak of $5.88 per kilo for the Hong Kong-Europe route, they were still higher than February’s pre-pandemic level of $2.52 per kilo, or than in any year pre-2020. Similarly, data from Seabury Consulting showed that global air cargo capacity was still 26% lower than last year’s level in the fortnight to Aug 29, as airlines tended to use smaller jets than usual, such as the A350, B787 and the B777 instead of the A380. Wystrach, a senior director of air freight at Flexport, cautioned that another peak was coming for air freight rates as fewer flights meant reduced capacity and a fall in passengers meant some flights had been cancelled altogether. “This coming week could be the silence before the storm,” he said. “Indicators suggest we are heading for a peak-season in which the impact of summer and winter schedule changes will not be the same as in the years before.”<br/>