Lufthansa Cargo MD11F
Unaffected By Ash
 The
closure of most parts of the European airspace was eased a bit today
(Sunday).
In Germany the airports of Berlin, Leipzig/Halle,
Frankfurt and Frankfurt Hahn were re-opened temporarily but all of them
solely for flights in/from easterly direction, i.e. Poland, Russia,
China, Japan.
Other big airports like Munich, Hamburg,
Düsseldorf or Cologne remain shut down at least until Monday 8
a.m.
Officials said that different local and
regional ash concentrations in the atmosphere led to their decision
allowing air traffic at some of Germany’s airports.
In France, Bordeaux, Marseille and Toulouse
were opened on Sunday and in Spain the national authority Aena allowed
flying at Barcelona and some minor airports in the northern and eastern
part of the country.
Meanwhile Air Cargo News/Flying Typers
spoke to DLH Chief Pilot Fokko Doyen who told this publication exclusively:
“We departed in Frankfurt yesterday
late afternoon having been given a special permission for a test flight
to Istanbul with one of our MD-11Fs.
“While climbing we must have penetrated
the ash layer hanging over most parts of Europe as meteorologists claim.
“Although the ash was visible we
did not notice any irregularities during the entire flight which we
completed by cruising at 39,000 feet altitude.
“After safe landing at Istanbul
Airport experts began inspecting the turbines thoroughly with special
instruments to get a precise picture of the motors.
“The encouraging result of this
flight and check was that there were no ash particles within the engines,
absolutely zero.
“Today we flew back from IST to
FRA and – again – could not detect any volcanic substance
in the atmosphere.
“It was a normal flight from beginning
to end just as we conduct it every day.
“According to professional weather
people the cloud is still hanging above our heads but we didn’t
detect a single trace of it.”
Further Lufthansa Cargo reports that today
at 20:30 hour (local) another MD-11F coming from Siberian Krasnoyarsk
is scheduled to land at Rhein/Main.
This brings the number up to three LH
freighters on Frankfurt’s ground with the rest being parked elsewhere
at airports around the world waiting to get green lights for their return.
The grey cloud that had closed European
air traffic completely is however taking its toll on the air cargo business
which had just begun to crawl back from the abyss of 2009, the worst
financial year in the history of commercial aviation.
Guy Hardy, (left) head of sales, Brussels
Airlines Cargo:
“Our entire flights in and out Brussels
have been stopped as of last Thursday, 4 p.m.
“Ever since no operation has been
conducted due to the volcanic cloud hanging over Europe forcing our
biz to a complete standstill.
“Actually we had planned to start
flights again Monday morning but this is highly uncertain at this point
due to high pressure and missing winds that hinder the cloud from dispersing.
“So far we have been hit quite hard
since we transport a lot of perishables on our Africa to Europe routes.
“Now we are sitting on a mountain
of vegetables and flowers here in Brussels that we were unable to commute
to final destinations like Geneva. We had to find importers that were
willing to buy these goods before the plants would get rotten.
“Parallel we unfortunately had to
destroy other transit shipments according to Belgian regulations.
“This required calling in specialized
enterprises that picked up the goods and issued an official destruction
document.
“This job we had to pay for, of
course.
“Meanwhile we informed our African
shippers that we aren’t accepting any air freight for the time
being until further notice.
“European consumers will soon feel
the implications of this severe disruption of the intercontinental supply
of perishables when going to their supermarket and finding poor vegetable
offerings in the shelves.”
 Dieter
Falk, (right) owner of forwarding agency DWF Air Service GmbH, Frankfurt
sees no end to the trouble, now overwhelming air cargo in Europe either.
“We have a huge backlog of air freight
in our warehouse in Frankfurt. The warehouse is almost spilling over
with goods that got stuck here.
“Like an urgent 16 ton-shipment
destined to Luanda, Angola for a local brewery.
“Since in most parts of Europe no
flights are coming in or departing, we have stopped all road feeder
transports to places like Brussels or Paris.
“We just would add to the backlog
Air France Cargo or Brussels Airlines Cargo are coping with, which doesn’t
make any real sense.
“However, compared to the cargo
airlines that are losing millions of Euros, the forwarding agents are
in a better position.
“Our main problem is the delay of
the transports that every shipper well understands, but unlike the airlines
we don’t have to pay for pilots or freighters that cost a lot
of money daily.
Ralf-Rainer Auslaender, managing director
leisure Cargo GmbH, Düsseldorf rides herd on an intricate set up
of 18 airlines where the company operates all the cargo space
 “On
average we transport 2,000 tons per week on board our mandate airlines,
mainly on intercontinental routes.
“Roughly 66 percent of this volume
is on the ground since last Thursday, when the ash cloud began floating
across northern and western Europe.
"Our worldwide team is working 24/7
to come up with innovative solutions for our customers.
“The disruption of air transport
will cause millions if not billions in Euros costs since a huge number
of industries depend on fast and reliable supply chains on a global
scale.
“My view is that it is only a question
of time until the first carriers knock at their government’s doors
to apply for state aid.”
Marc Buehler, supervisor Emirates Sky
Cargo, Frankfurt told Air Cargo News FlyingTypers:
“Our airline has cancelled all flights
to and from Europe except for Rome and Athens which still are open for
air traffic.
“Same goes for Istanbul, which we
also continue to serve.
“In and out of Germany we operate
eight freighter B747-400F flights weekly. Beginning Thursday, however
we had to stop these flights completely due to the activity of Iceland’s
Volcano.”
In a world turned suddenly upside down
air cargo people once again have been hard pressed to come up with creative
solutions to get the goods delivered.
As example Air Cargo News Flying Typers
learned that U.S. mail for the military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan
normally routed through LHR has been interlined out of USA to BAH for
delivery to the troops aboard Gulf Air Cargo.
No doubt that many creative albeit short
term solutions between transportation colleagues of long standing are
keeping vital cargo moving, despite the closed airspace in Europe.
Here is some airport news up to the minute:
At Frankfurt, Lufthansa Cargo cancelled
all flights scheduled for Sunday April 18 until 20.00 hrs (8 p.m. local
time FRA) (hopeful) and said the airline will review that schedule later
in the day.
Also of note, Lufthansa Cargo is only
accepting booked and confirmed shipments with dimensions of less than
100 cm *100 cm *100cm.
More at www.lufthansa-cargo.com.
Budget carrier Ryanair said all its scheduled
flights to and from the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden,
Belgium, Holland, northern France, northern Germany, Poland and the
Baltic States have been halted until 1pm on Monday.
UK Transport Secretary Lord Adonis yesterday
(Saturday) warned it was 'likely that significant disruption to most
UK air services' would continue for 'at least the next 48 hours.”
Channel Tunnel high-speed train company
Eurostar reported that its 58 services were full yesterday.
This meant the company was able to handle
more than 46,000 passengers on its trains running between London, Paris
and Brussels.
Many people took to ferries to reach the
Continent.
 According
to one press report, some businessmen paid a taxi driver £700
to take them from Belfast to London after being stranded by flight disruption.
Another report had a British businessman
stranded in France buying a women's bicycle to board a ferry in a bid
to get home for his wife's birthday.
Meantime echoing Guy Hardy’s comments,
reports are circulating that fruit and vegetables including lettuce,
grapes, spring onions and asparagus may be missing from many supermarket
shelves next week across the UK as produce from overseas will also see
higher prices.
Norbert Dentressangle, a major French
transport and logistics company, said activity at its perishable cargo
handling center at Heathrow, the UK's largest, is at a standstill.
Meanwhile World Health Organization now
announced that Europeans should try to stay indoors if ash starts falling
from the sky.
Another report notes that as airlines
re-book and refund customers, insurance firms are mulling whether they
will side step refunds by invoking 'Act of God' clauses to escape a
payout.
Heiner Siegmund/Geoffrey
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