The corona virus creates challenges for flight cargo for salmon.
The airline industry is shaken by the corona crisis. As of Monday, SAS will cancel most of its operations. Norwegian cancels 4,000 flights and lets off around 5,000 employees. Finnair has also warned that the outbreak of the virus will have consequences for the company’s operations.
Recently, US President Donald Trump stopped all flights from Europe in an attempt to curb the coronation center. When the president announced the entry ban, he said it should not apply to Britain. But a recent press release states that the UK and Ireland are now also subject to travel restrictions in the US.
Stein Arve W. Sørensen is chairman of both Gardermoen Perishable Center and Quality Transport. He says many internal measures must be implemented because of the corona situation, but at the same time adds that the biggest problem is lack of access to enough air cargo capacity. According to mtlogistikk.no, 65 percent of the cargo capacity of the United States from Europe is based on passenger aircraft.
“Large parts of Norwegian fish exports dependent entirely on the cargo capacity of passenger aircraft. This capacity is now drastically reduced, not least by the shutdown of US traffic,” Sørensen told the website.
The logistics giant Schenker is also naturally affected by the situation. In late January, Schenker’s air freight chief Morten Würgler said that salmon originally intended for China will find new markets. Now that the corona situation is escalating day by day, the freight forwarder is taking further steps. As of Thursday, Schenker will insert extra weekly cargo planes into the company’s network, which will fly round-trip to and from the US, writes mtlogistikk.no. In addition, the company continues its own charter flights from Asia.
“There is a lot of capacity for medical equipment here,” says Sales and Marketing Director Peter Stangeland of Schenker.
