Storm Over Air Cargo Americas

   The Air Cargo Americas event that was supposed to be held this week in Miami, USA was finally cancelled at the last minute by show organizer World Trade Center in Miami after Hurricane Wilma knocked power out to most of the city, flooding was rampant and the airport was closed indefinitely.
   But the show, that for even the uninformed was a no-go from early Monday, reportedly continued to draw people in, even setting up some booths as Wilma raged and devastated parts of Miami, and the hotel and venue were operating on emergency generators while security at the show venue, The Sheraton warned visitors “stay inside and don’t venture out.”
   The late cancellation or “postponment” that WTC released mid-day Tuesday through their mouthpiece “sponsoring publication,” followed FlyingTypers’ warning worldwide earlier in the day that the Air Cargo Americas show was toast.
   Now what we hear from people we talk to was that no information was offered by WTC to hundreds, even thousands of people in air cargo as to status of the show as they continued enroute from all over the world to Miami.
   Many of these people are currently stuck in hotels around the world awaiting flights, with no option but to pay inflated air fares and hotel rates, as they return home empty-handed.
   Right now many in the air cargo industry are left angry and confused and wondering what the hell happened in Miami?
   Rarely does an event unleash the feelings of an industry as the fiasco at Air Cargo Americas.
   Here are a couple of letters typical of the mail we have received.
   We thank our readers for the letters that we might share with everyone.
   FlyingTypers is on your side.

Geoffrey -

Thanks for being a forum regarding the truth abouut Air Cargo Americas and the inexcusable botching of their communications plan. Apparently hurricanes are new to the MIA area and the idea that their website and communications plan would need a backup plan independent of the availability of power in South Florida escaped them.

Secondly, I enjoyed your reflections about baseball in general and New York in particular(Friday October 28FT) although I don’t know how one could reflect on NY baseball during that era without even a passing mention of New York's real team at the time, the senior franchise of the City of New York, the New York Giants.

Regards,
David Behrmann
Director of Contract Administration
Polar Air Cargo
PS- With respect to the "World Series," there is no need to justify ourselves to the non-Americans who think that their national teams could compete with major league baseball.
You might have simply pointed out that the "World" in "World Series" actually traces its origins back to the Chicago World newspaper that originated the idea of a championship series between the two separate leagues.

To The Editor:
  Thank you for your information today on the cancellation of the Air Cargo Americas Show in Miami.
  FlyingTypers was the first publication to deliver the news.
  I must say that in this day of instant communication it is unbelievable that the organizers did nothing to communicate the status of the show.
  In fact the last update on the ACA Website was Sunday the 23rd.
  On Sunday and Monday we all watched the news and knew Wilma was going to hit Florida hard.
  What was the thinking of the organizers?
  Did they imagine Wilma was going to be just a thunderstorm, and it was going to pass?
  The storm hit early Monday morning and ACA was still telling people to come on down and set up booths.
  The Miami World Trade Center is a Florida operation.
  Are we to believe that they don’t understand the nature of hurricanes?
  Many of us believing what ACA was putting out initially before going silent, spent hours trying to rebook flights, hotel rooms, and the like for ourselves, and in my case for people en-route to the show from Europe.
  Now at the last hour (after the storm) ACA decides to cancel the show.
  To make matters worse, the information did not come from the show organizers, it came from FlyingTypers.
  So thank you for your heads up, courage and common sense to speak to the industry and tell the truth, unlike the organizers of the show.
  The no-show cost a lot of money.
  We have to work quite hard to replace both revenue and time lost.
  I wonder why ACA could just go silent and leave us out here twisting in the wind?
  If a score was given for communication on a scale 1-10, it would show Air Cargo Americas’ organizers World Trade Center Miami -1, FlyingTypers /Air Cargo News-10.
  Geoff, thanks again.

John G. Ryan
Cargo Manager North America
bmi Cargo

  Many thanks Geoffrey,
  You are the first and only source of information relative to the storm's impact on ACA that we have received.
  Thanks again,
Garner McNett

  Thanks to Flying Typers and Geoffrey Arend this is the "ONLY" update or news I have received regarding the ACA show and its existence since last Friday.
  If the ACA can not make an announcement (due to storm outages) regarding the status of the show I would suggest using media like FlyingTypers to update the general public!!
  Thanks,

George J. Henrich
V.P. Sales
International Strategies, Inc.
11 Beacon Street
Boston, MA. 02108
617-723-8899 ext. 203