Integrators clear European backlogs

Air express operators in Europe were today tackling a backlog of shipments and gearing up tore-introduce guaranteed express delivery as flight operations further normalised at airports across

The massive scale of the financial impact from six days of airport closures across most ofEurope due to the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud started to emerge yesterday. IATA estimated that theworld’s airlines were hit with $1.7 billion (€1.27 billion) worth of lost revenues between lastThursday (April 15) and this Tuesday (April 20), while Europe’s airports have suffered a further€250 million in lost revenues, according to the ACI Europe association.

“At the worst, the crisis impacted 29% of global aviation. The scale of the crisis eclipsed 9/11when US airspace was closed for three days,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General andCEO. IATA is calling on governments to lift night flight restrictions, relax slot usage rules andconsider compensation for costs such as extra passenger accommodation. Bisignani also criticisedthat European airspace was closed “based on theoretical models, not on facts”.

Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE, commented: “These past 6 days have unequivocallyshown that Europe is in dire need of a fully functioning Single European Sky and that the lack ofit can lead to paralysis, with dramatic consequences. This situation has also been a stark reminderof the irreplaceable role that aviation plays in connecting our continent and making it work. It isa wake up call for all governments to finally develop a long-term strategic vision for aviation andmake it part of our future.”

The integrators, who have not yet disclosed the financial impact of the European airspaceclosure on their businesses, are now operating virtually normally again at their European air hubsand are working to clear the backlog of shipments. Virtually all scheduled flights will operatenormally in Europe today after 80% of normal flights took off and landed yesterday, Eurocontrolsaid.

DHL Express yesterday resumed most of its close to 100 regular intra-European express flightsand ran regular night operations at its Leipzig hub following the re-opening of German airspace. “Intercontinental air operations to Asia, the US and Middle East/Africa have been gradually steppedup during the weekend, including those of AeroLogic and DHL Air UK, and are now back to normal,”the operator stated. The alternative road transport services are still in operation where airspacerestrictions remain in place.

The express operator also said it expects to resume its standard express services within thenext few days. In customer messages, it announced it will lift the 50kg per shipment restrictionfor Asia-to-Europe shipments on Friday (April 23) and resume guaranteed time-definite expressservices on Monday (April 26).

DHL Express stressed that it kept European deliveries moving through the EU airspace shutdownover the last week through a range of contingency measures. Additional flights from its US hub atCincinnati were routed to its facility at Vitoria, Spain, to keep shipments moving through thenetwork. DHL also set up alternative ground routes across Europe, increasing its fleet of trucks toover 300 in just three days, and increased its flight operations in regions around the world. “ We activated our weather contingency plans and they worked. We never stopped pickup and delivery.We had some delays to some European countries, but we had continuous flow in our hubs,” statedRoger Crook, chief executive officer for DHL Express Americas.

UPS has resumed a full flight schedule to, from and within Europe as air restrictions have beenlifted. “Last night, we operated at full capacity at our main European air hub in Cologne, Germany,and were able to clear a large part of the backlog of shipments currently in our system,” thecompany said in a service update. UPS added that it has begun to move intra-European Express volumethrough its air network again, and most of this volume will be delivered by the end of the businessday for which it was scheduled.

The company said it expects the backlog to be cleared by the end of this week but warnedcustomers to expect some delays until the backlog is cleared. Looking ahead, it added: “As soon asall our operations across Europe run as normal, UPS service guarantees will be re-instated.”

TNT Express, which resumed intercontinental and European flights at its Liege hub on Tuesday(April 20), said it has successfully kept backlogs in Europe to a minimum thanks to its roadnetwork and various contingency plans. It is now trying to secure commercial uplift from Asia toEurope to gain additional capacity along with its scheduled B747 freighter service.

FedEx has now largely resumed normal flights to, from and within Europe and its pick-up anddelivery services on the continent are operating normally. Restrictions on freight shipments toEurope and the suspension of money-back guarantee for all affected shipments remain in place,however.

Major European cargo airlines are also gradually resuming normal operations and trying to getthrough the massive backlog of freight that has built up over the last week. Lufthansa Cargo saidit will operate an almost complete schedule today and tomorrow. “Currently, we are working on theexisting backlog in order to get the freight delivered as soon as possible. All embargosregarding freight delivery to our Frankfurt hub have been lifted,” it said.

Air France-KLM Cargo said it, too, will operate virtually intercontinental and European flightstoday. “We are currently successfully working on shipping all cargo already accepted at our hubs assoon as possible. Cargo acceptance has been fully resumed at our hubs in CDG, Paris and SPL,Amsterdam and in our outstations worldwide and in Europe,” it said in a customer message.Luxemburg-based Cargolux said it has resumed flights and aims to be back to its normal schedule byApril 26.

Meanwhile, there are moves to relax weekend trucking restrictions in Europe in order to enabletrucks to keep moving air freight shipments across the continent on Saturday and Sunday. Countrieswith weekend bans on lorries include France (22:00 Saturday to 22:00 Sunday), Germany (midnight to22:00 Sunday), Switzerland (all of Sunday), Italy (08:00 to 22:00 Sunday) and Spain (complex localrestrictions). There are no bans in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and many eastern Europeanstates, however.

In the UK, the Freight Transport Association’s Jo Tanner said: “Like passenger carriers, many ofour members are using mainland Spain as a hub and then moving goods from there to the UK by roadand rail. However, the success of these contingency plans could be severely hampered by the weekendlorry bans that are in place in many parts of Europe. We are calling on those countries todeactivate those bans and help us keep the goods and produce moving.”

In Germany, the national and regional governments have agreed to suspend the Sunday truckingbans on April 25. German road haulage association BGL welcomed the initiative to avoid “a largetraffic jam” of air freight shipments and enable important deliveries of industrial parts and othergoods.