International express companies are scaling back activities in Bahrain due to the growing crisisin the island kingdom which is home to the DHL Express Middle East air hub.
Bahrain’s king today declared a three-month state of emergency after 1,000 Saudi troops and 500UAE police officers yesterday entered the country to help protect the Sunni regime. According toreports, the Bahrain armed forces were told to restore order. The Saudi/UAE intervention wascriticised by the island’s Shia majority, which has been protesting for weeks for reforms anddemocratic rights, as well as by Iran. Several demonstrators were shot by police last month.
In response to the escalating situation, Aramex, FedEx, TNT and UPS have all halted operationson the island, which is a major financial and commercial centre in the Gulf region.
However, DHL Express stressed that operations at its air hub in Bahrain and on the island arecontinuing. “DHL is transporting shipments to and from Bahrain, despite the current situation,” aspokeswoman told CEP-Research.
“DHL Hub operations at the airport and Service Centers are operating as usual and we continue tooffer pick-up and delivery services,” she added. “However, many areas remain challenging to accessand some delay can be expected. The road network is also operating scheduled services as normalwith only minimal delays due to increased security measures. We are monitoring the situationclosely and will update our customers as appropriate.”
Bahrain airport is one of six major DHL air hubs around the world and is used for stopovers oflong-haul planes and as the base for the Middle East air network. Together, DHL Express and Danzas(the local DHL Global Forwarding name) employed 468 people at six locations in Bahrain in 2009,including the airport facility.
TNT Express said it suspended services yesterday and is holding shipments for Bahrain at its newDubai hub. “TNT Bahrain did not operate its pick-up and delivery fleet considering the tenseatmosphere prevailing around the country. Delivery of air linehaul material to the hub has alsobeen very erratic due to absence of workforce,” the company said in a service alert.
“TNT is monitoring the situation very closely and it has been decided to suspend all airlinehauls temporarily. A contingency plan has been put in place to route all air materialtransiting Bahrain via the Dubai hub for imports as well as exports. All imports into Bahrain willbe held at the Dubai hub in the interim.”
Aramex, the Middle East-based express company, announced today it has temporarily suspended alldeliveries and pick-ups in Bahrain. UPS stated: “Due to the current civil unrest in Bahrain,shipments in and out of the country are temporarily subject to suspension.”
FedEx said it has suspended its service in Bahrain as well as in Libya, and is stillexperiencing service delays in Egypt, Oman and Tunisia.
