With the Brexit deadline on March 29 creeping up, some carriers and charter services are preparing for a boost in demand for capacity on their E.U.-U.K. routes, saying that shippers that regularly utilize ocean freight may turn to airfreight to avoid bottlenecks at sea ports, in light of the possibility of a “no-deal” Brexit.
This week, Swiss forwarder Panalpina joined the conversation, promoting its trans-Atlantic/U.K.-E.U. freighter services as such an alternative.
The forwarder said that by offering capacity for “any airworthy merchandise from the Americas directly into London”, as well as that from the U.K. to Luxembourg, it can help effected shippers by “flying over the channel and avoiding coastal borders which will most likely represent the major bottlenecks for U.K.-E.U. trade.”
Panalpina’s weekly 747 freighter services in the trans-Atlantic region are listed in detail on its website, here.
Last month, Air Cargo World asked air charter service provider Chapman Freeborn’s cargo operations director Pierre Van der Stichele if the company had witnessed such a trend begin to unfold. Van der Stichele said it had already had two such clients book turboprop freighters due to Brexit-related concerns.
“A lot of people are starting to question, ‘What could we do?’ And we’re starting to see more calls come in – emails from specific freight forwarders [asking], ‘What would it cost for an airplane of this size?’”
Panalpina said it has set up a special task force especially for addressing Brexit-related concerns. “The uncertainties about Brexit make it challenging for any company that exports out of the U.K. or imports into it, to prepare adequately for the time after March 29, 2019,” the company said on its website. “Panalpina is continuously evaluating the situation from a supply chain perspective and remains in close contact with its customers that are affected by Brexit.”
At present, there is not much concerned parties can do but wait for the U.K. and E.U. to agree on a new trade relationship – the details of which are currently quite murky – before logistics companies can begin to make concrete contingency plans to manage the inevitable supply chain disruptions.