As you know, the West Coast ports crisis is impacting traditional peak season demand in a major way. Disruption to supply chains is occurring at varying degrees across the business landscape.

And while ocean transportation is being further complicated by an expanding domino effect on vessel and container cycle times, air freight capacity between the Pacific Rim and North America is also feeling the impact. Backlogs and carriers pricing decisions, which take the form of immediate surcharges and rate increases, are being deployed with little or no advanced notice.

These market conditions have created a volatile environment both for air transportation pricing and capacity from the region. While specific effects vary widely by market, they include:

• Imposition of surcharges regardless of contract rates.
• Cargo, which is only accepted by air carriers for express service pricing, without any service commitment.
• Some air carriers revoking previously negotiated cargo capacity allocations.
• At a few Asian origin cities, air carriers issuing embargos on new shipments.
• Some air carriers refusing to provide written commitments to pricing or space allocations and/or advance notification of changes to pricing and or capacity.
• Daily (at times even hourly) rate fluctuations.

BDP personnel located in the Pacific Rim and North America are in close communication with air carriers to monitor these changes. We are gathering, analyzing and interpreting the data to bring you clear information and recommendations on how to best navigate the situation. For example, a number of our customers need to expedite shipments to and from North American locations once they arrive (or to meet departure schedules) at port cities. BDP provides domestic air transport options based on customer needs for emergency and time-definite service.

We will continue to update you with the latest possible service and pricing information.

Respectfully,

Jim Seiple
Director of Corporate Air Freight
BDP International