Thousands of tonnes of goods, including perishables, stuck as airfreight rates rise due to flight cancellations
Thousands of tons of goods are seen stuck in the airport’s warehouses. PHOTO: EXPRESS
LAHORE:
The Iran-US conflict has disrupted the air cargo system, causing a massive backlog of goods at airports across Pakistan, including Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport. Thousands of tons of cargo are stuck in airport warehouses, and major air cargo providers have raised their prices, with some charging double or triple the usual rates.
The conflict has seriously affected air cargo services. According to sources working at the airport, over the past five days, more than 700 flights have been canceled at Allama Iqbal International Airport and across the country. Shipments containing food, fruit, vegetables, meat and other goods have not been able to leave the region for the past five days. Goods that were supposed to be air-freighted from airports like Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Multan, Faisalabad and Sialkot are stuck in warehouses.
Read: US strikes 2,000 targets in Iran as retaliation spreads across Gulf region
At Lahore Airport, around 200 to 300 tonnes of goods were earlier sent daily via air cargo to destinations like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other countries. Now the cargo is not moving and the exporters are frustrated.
Goods are stuck at the airport. PHOTO: EXPRESS
The companies that handle these shipments have also significantly increased their prices, adding another difficulty to the exporters.
Customs clearance agents are also facing unemployment as many agents used to handle 200 to 300 tonnes of goods daily. According to a customs broker in Riyadh, no shipments have been sent for the past five days, and agents are waiting in the hope that flights will soon be restored. But as the conflict between Iran and the United States intensifies, there is no clear solution in sight.
Mansoor, an executive at an air cargo service company, said their goods have been sitting in their offices and airport sheds for the past five days.
Read more: OGRA orders daily LPG stock reporting due to supply concerns
Reservations were made but flights were canceled at the last minute and as a result goods have not reached Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. The few airlines that still provide air cargo services have more than doubled their prices, making it almost impossible to ship goods. These sky-high costs make it economically impossible to ship the cargo.
Mansoor urged the government to take immediate action and reinstate air cargo services to allow the thousands of tonnes of goods stuck at Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and other airports to be shipped out. If these shipments are not sent soon, the exporters will face losses in millions of dollars. The air cargo companies have also demanded that the government consult with airlines and work to resume cargo services to prevent the mass unemployment of thousands of families who depend on air cargo.
Mansoor said that only a few shipments to European countries, the United States and Canada have been sent, but they were also sent at double the normal rates out of necessity.
Apart from the losses faced by airlines and cargo providers, the government is also suffering a loss of billions of rupees in customs and taxes. While garments and other items can be held up for a week or two, the situation with perishable goods is critical and the long delays cause goods to spoil.
