New eruption spreads more ash, but pressure's on to fly anyway

ROME and Milan were the only European destinations Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways has been able to serve and would go on doing so as long as possible, said a statement from the airline.

Other Asian and American airlines are also using Barcelona, Madrid, Athens and Istanbul, discharging freight to be forwarded by other modes of transport.

Cathay said situation remained uncertain as a new eruption of the Icelandic volcano caused a further dispersal of ash over northern Europe, which has closed most airports most of the time.

Paul Tsui vice chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarding and Logistics (HAFFA), said forwarders here were already holding more than 4,000 tonnes of cargo in warehouses on Friday a day after Europe was transformed into a no-fly zone.

"That's a lot higher now," he said. "This is going to cause major disruption to supply chains around the world. Capacity from China to the US is also being affected." "

An earlier announcement of the partial lifting of the flight ban over Europe by EU transport ministers provided hope, but it was eclipsed by news of a fresh new volcanic eruption which spewed out more clouds of ashes.

Qantas has continued cancelling flights to Europe into Thursday. Since last Thursday the air space of Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, then Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Sweden and Switzerland have been shut to all commercial traffic, reported the UK's Transport Intelligence.

Now air freight disruptions are expected to spread to America after the weather office said volcanic ash cloud was heading for the US and Canada. US airlines are now on alert and may cancel flights from major eastern hubs such as New York and Boston.

Delta cancelled 90 flights Monday and 39 flights for Tuesday and said it would operate routes to Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Athens and Istanbul, reported the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Meanwhile, airlines, airports, freight forwarders and express delivery companies are putting pressure on the authorities to re-assess flight restrictions after a number of airlines carried out successful test flights through the ash, reported London's International Freighting Weekly.

Said International Air Transport Association's (IATA) director general Giovanni Bisignani: "We must move away from this blanket closure and find ways to flexibly open air space, step-by-step."

KLM, Air France, British Airways and Air Berlin are among carriers that performed test flights that also included two commercial cargo flights by KLM from Amsterdam to the Far East on Sunday evening, using freighter and combi aircraft.

KLM chief executive Peter Hartman said it is safe to fly in daylight. BA said it its test flight results were perfect with the aircraft encountering no difficulty.

Asian Airlines are refusing to accept bookings to and from Europe. A spokesman for Singapore Airlines Cargo said the company had cancelled all scheduled inbound and outbound freighter services to Europe and perishable and pharmaceutical products had been returned to customers.

All FedEx all flights from Asia to Europe were classified as "delayed". DHL said it was adjusting its air and ground networks to process shipments in the affected regions using available transport modes.

At Bangkok International Suvarnabhumi Airport cargo was being held for Europe. "We hope the problem does not go beyond another two to three days as then there will start to be supply chain issues as inventories run out," he said.

Panalpina said that the cancellation of flights would further tighten capacity and lead to additional bottlenecks as backlogs built up around the world.

UPS shipments to Europe have been routed to Madrid, with the goods then being trucked. Some shipments from Asia are being sent to Istanbul, Turkey, and trucked onward.

The volcanic ash has impacted Hong Kong activities where a European exhibitors could miss international trade exhibitions this week due to the flight chaos.

South Africa's Business Day reported its cargo carriers of perishables such as meat, fish, fresh fruit and vegetables started to tally the cost of not being able to transport their goods to European countries.

"It has been chaos," said Alwyn Rautenbach, managing director of Airlink Cargo and chairman of South Africa's Air Cargo Operators Committee, which estimates cargo volumes had dropped by half.

Source: www.schednet.com