Airfreight forwarders suffer as rate more than doubles
Biman’s hajj flights operation coupled with increased rates have landed air freight forwarders in trouble making it difficult for the cargo professionals to handle the country’s exports and imports.
Capacity constraints arose as Biman’s wide body aircrafts, which used to airlift exports, were diverted for Hajj operations leading to a reduction of capacity.
Also, airfreight rates from Bangladesh increased from 30 to 70 per cent in June.
“Export containers could not be loaded on feeder vessels for almost 10 days because of huge pile-up of import containers. As a result, many shipments earlier destined for different seaports of the world had to be converted to air to meet buyers’ deadline,” Nurul Amin, Director of Public Relations of Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association (BAFFA) said.
The present crisis worsened after the nine-day Eid-ul-Fitr holidays created logjam, said Nurul Amin.
Nurul Amin, who is also Managing Director, Tower Freight Logistics Ltd, said even before the present predicament, airfreight capacity from Bangladesh declined due to cancellation of weekly freighter operation by Lufthansa last month for restrictions on direct cargo flights from Dhaka while some other airlines had either reduced, re-routed or changed aircraft or frequencies.
For this almost 400 tonnes capacity per week has gone out of the market, aggravating the present situation, he said.
At the same time, increase in demand for airfreight from China and their capability to pay high freight charges, airlines give priority to those shipments from their hubs.
Industry insiders warned that the present capacity situation may continue until mid-October. Again there could be another brief peak in November for-end Christmas shipment.
He said some independent and scheduled airlines are trying to operate ad-hoc charters but delays in getting permission and operating with one-way traffic makes those expensive. Still, some ad-hoc freighters are being operated but those are too inadequate to meet the rising demand.
Perishable exporters are also facing problems. They are surviving somehow exporting perishables to the Middle Eastern countries following the UK ban. They are unable to export to other Middle East countries as Biman is using its aircraft for hajj operation.
There is also a long standing problem with import cargo. Due to shortage of space, import consignments are still being kept haphazardly, making it difficult to locate consignments of their clients, thereby delaying the delivery.
Nurul Amin said if things are not streamlined at the airport and space is increased, it will be difficult to meet export target, thus leaving the economy to suffer
