Air freight prices 'outrageous' as COVID-19 shots rolled out, says WHO expert

Some carriers are seeking “outrageous” prices to fly dry ice and other medical equipment in the pre-holiday rush, but a capacity squeeze should ease in 2021 when the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines is expected, the WHO’s logistics chief said on Tuesday. Distribution of vaccines to low- and middle-income countries will be tricky, due to grounded passenger air services in some places, and may rely on charters, said Paul Molinaro, WHO chief of operations support and logistics. Price inflation has been a growing feature in air freight, with “across the board increases especially since November,” Molinaro said. He cited a price quote just received for a dry ice shipment, needed to cool some lab re-agents, which is around 20 times the norm. “I just had a quote from a cargo (company) - a big one that shall remain nameless - Dallas (Texas) USA to Sierra Leone, Freetown - at sort of $105 a kilo, which is outrageous actually,” he said. The “normal price” would be $4-$6 per kilo, he said. Molinaro said a range of factors had driven prices, including a greater than usual pre-Christmas increase in e-commerce as lockdowns keep people at home. “So we have air freight rates coming out of China going up because of the introduction of the new iPhone, because of the introduction of Play Station 5 and because of the fact that products are in high demand anyway,” he said. By January, available capacity might increase, he added. Airline body IATA’s chief economist Brian Pearce said Tuesday that Christmas demand “exaggerates the problem” of soaring cargo rates, which should ease early next year in time for the ramp-up in vaccine shipments. “That’s the low season for the cargo business - that will free up a lot of capacity,” he said.<br/>