AMI catching up fast after volcano disruption
The UK arm of AMI – the world’s largest airfreight wholesaler – is rapidly returning to normal service after six days of flight embargoes within British airspace, caused by the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano last week. One of the UK’s largest movers of export airfreight shipments, AMI is in contact with all carriers to whom cargo was delivered before the shutdown, securing re-bookings and issuing new flight confirmations to its customers. Cargo that was held by AMI in its own facilities at the time of the airspace shutdown is now being booked with carriers, mostly using AMI’s major pre-booked space allocations. AMI is now open again for new bookings, which are also being fed into its pre-booked space. Says VP Europe, Sharon Wright: “The picture is not yet fully clear, just a few hours into the re-opening of UK airpspace. Some carriers are rapidly returning to normal, while others are still re-positioning stranded aircraft. There are also backlogs everywhere, including many airline sheds that must despatch some cargo before they can accept more. It will take some days to return to normal. But now the airlines are flying again, our pre-booked allocations with most major carriers will help to move our customers’ traffic quickly.“ Throughout the six day flight shutdown, AMI operated a partial service for its customers, successfully rerouting traffic for European destinations onto its Eurotrux intra-European road programme and Express Road services. The company’s Heathrow warehouse was also able to ease pressure elsewhere by continuing to take in cargo, ready for shipment as soon as flights re-started. Continues Sharon Wright: “We are continuing to do everything we can, but this was an unprecedented situation which clearly took everybody off guard, and affected everyone. “Hopefully we have all learned some lessons. Airlines – particularly freighter operators – need to look at ways of working around a problem like this, by quickly adopting alternative gateways outside the no-fly zone, which we could then feed by road. On a government level, there must be a Europe-wide contingency plan in place, should such a situation ever arise again.” She concludes: “We are grateful for our customers’ understanding, and for the flexibility and dedication of our staff. It’s a huge relief that aircraft are flying again, and we have hit the ground running to get everyone’s cargo away as soon as possible.” Quelle: AMI |