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Experts told Supply Chain Dive that the reduction in air traffic ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration will have a limited short-term impact on cargo flow, but shippers still need to draw up contingency plans.
The FAA this week ordered a 10 percent reduction in air traffic at 40 major airports across the United States due to the ongoing government shutdown. The agency has told airports to reduce traffic by 4 percent by Nov. 7 and by 10 percent by Nov. 14 under the emergency order.
As airports and carriers implement changes to meet the FAA’s goals, the overall impact on aviation is expected to be limited, particularly because international flights are exempt, according to Mike Short, head of Global Forwarding at CH Robinson.
“International operations represent a much larger share of air cargo movements and currently, international flights are fully exempt,” Short said in an email.
“Since most U.S. domestic air traffic moves in the belly of passenger planes as opposed to cargo planes, the reduction in commercial routes will reduce air capacity in these markets,” Short said. Therefore, the domestic air market may see temporary restrictions and longer transit times.”
According to Derek Lessing, senior e-commerce and transportation industry consultant at Cirrus Global Advisors, most of the traffic reductions so far have targeted short-haul regional flights, which typically do not include a large volume of air cargo demand.
“So far, we’ve seen very little impact on air cargo carriers and products,” Losing, who previously served in logistics leadership roles at Amazon, said in an email. US airlines are heavily protective of their international operations and their hub-to-hub flights, which account for the majority of widebody capacity in North America.
How do operators respond?
Carriers like FedEx, UPS and Delta Cargo have not seen a major impact on their operations, particularly because the order requires traffic to be reduced on flights between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. local time.
FedEx said in a statement sent to Supply Chain Dive, “The majority of our flights operate at night, outside of the daily time frame restricted by the FAA, and we have confirmed with the FAA that our international flights will continue without interruption.”
According to the email, the carrier said it has changed its operations to meet FAA requirements while keeping cargo flowing.
Rival UPS said it was confident it could maintain service levels despite the drop in air traffic, similarly stressing that many of its flights operate overnight.
“We are monitoring our operations at affected airports and flexing our network to protect critical shipments of sanitary items and essential manufacturing goods,” UPS said in an emailed statement.
In a statement on its website, Delta said there may be an impact on domestic schedules, but all long-haul international service is expected to continue without interruption.
“Delta Cargo is working to minimize impacts to cargo by stabilizing loads on existing flights and maintaining network reliability,” Delta said. “At this time, no customer action is required.”
Meanwhile, Clearjet, a company that It uses passenger flight capacity to move customers’ packages, saying it’s built for exactly that kind of fluctuation.
“When capacity is reduced, we reroute in real time across multiple airlines and airports to keep cargo moving,” Clearjet CEO Chris Guggenheim said in an emailed statement.
Emergency plans
Although capacity hasn’t changed drastically, if these reductions persist long-term, carriers and carriers alike could face problems, as the FAA order was issued in response to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
According to reports, if the government shutdown continues, flight reductions will increase, mainly in small regional markets, and pressured air traffic volumes will increase. lose. He also noted that with more flights canceled, airports may prioritize passenger operations over cargo loading.
“For now, [it’s] Liaising with airlines and forwarders, and making sure backup plans are in place for shipping — whether booking on the next flight or transferring to LTL trucks to other gateways or hubs.
However, turning to alternative transport modes to circumvent any impact on domestic air cargo movement has its own problems.
Short said, noting that CH Robinson is also analyzing customer inventory to determine how existing inventory can be used to fill potential gaps.
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