newstodate.aero
May 18, 2010 (newstodate): Home to the volcano currently haunting air traffic, Iceland's airfreight market is strongly affected by the disruptions of flight irregularities.
-We are certainly seeing problems especially with the important export of Icelandic seafood that normally relies on air transportation, says Ms Berglind, Jonar Transport project manager.
-Some of the perishables shipments are re-directed to sea transportation when that is a feasible solution, but other perishables shipments have to go by air, and fish exporters then take their chance to find capacity on whichever aircraft is moving.
-As for other types of shipments, the situation is less critical as they can be stored at airports in waiting for traffic to open up. That means, of course, that there is temporarily a heavy backlog, but everyone understands and accepts the situation. Also we put great efforts into informing customers of the risks involved in booking airfreight these days.
-The situation translates into a most uneven workload for the forwarders. Today no import shipments have arrived at Keflavik Airport, so there is little to do until the traffic is resumed when everything will then have to be performed within a very narrow time-frame.
-Happily, the carriers have been restraining themselves from turning the strained situation into higher airfreight rates. Rates are actually kept unchanged, and only if shipments are transferred between Icelandic airports due to changes in the traffic pattern are customers required to pay extra road feeder charges, says Ms Berglind.
-We are certainly seeing problems especially with the important export of Icelandic seafood that normally relies on air transportation, says Ms Berglind, Jonar Transport project manager.
-Some of the perishables shipments are re-directed to sea transportation when that is a feasible solution, but other perishables shipments have to go by air, and fish exporters then take their chance to find capacity on whichever aircraft is moving.
-As for other types of shipments, the situation is less critical as they can be stored at airports in waiting for traffic to open up. That means, of course, that there is temporarily a heavy backlog, but everyone understands and accepts the situation. Also we put great efforts into informing customers of the risks involved in booking airfreight these days.
-The situation translates into a most uneven workload for the forwarders. Today no import shipments have arrived at Keflavik Airport, so there is little to do until the traffic is resumed when everything will then have to be performed within a very narrow time-frame.
-Happily, the carriers have been restraining themselves from turning the strained situation into higher airfreight rates. Rates are actually kept unchanged, and only if shipments are transferred between Icelandic airports due to changes in the traffic pattern are customers required to pay extra road feeder charges, says Ms Berglind.