Volcano In Iceland Grounds Planes, Will China Shipping Be Delayed?

Author xlxmarketing 17.4.2010. | 21:35

volcano picture

Eruption at Eyjafjallaj at dusk, 27 March 2010, Boaworm

UPDATES

5.59 pm April 26 2010 Beijing Time Couriers are accepting all packages now and shipping times should be back to normal..

12.52 am April 23 2010 Beijing Time According to our shipping team the majority of packages processed before the 21st of April have been cleared so it appears that courier flights have almost completely returned to normal schedules.

1.29 pm April 22 2010 Beijing Time a limited number of courier flights are starting to travel to and from Europe. However people should still expect delays as there is some backlog of packages to get through.

7.27 pm April 21 2010 Beijing Time The DHL site has posted the following announcement:

The volcanic eruptions in Iceland have led to the closure of airspace over the majority of European countries. We are pleased to report these restrictions are slowly being lifted and as they are DHL is immediately restoring air services. DHL will continue to provide our global customers with the most effective transport solution in this challenging environment…
DHL Express
* Please expect a 24-72 hour delay for shipments moving intra Europe to destinations not listed above and a 3-5 day delay for shipments moving into and out of Europe from / to “rest of the world” locations.

* Shipments being sent from Asia Pacific origins to European destinations are currently restricted to less than 50Kg per shipment. There is no change to the normal weight and dimensions on all other lanes during the current situation.

* No guaranteed time based services (e.g. 9 am, 12 noon) are being provided until further notice.

Normal high levels of service will be offered for shipments and services required on the following routes:

* Shipments moving Intra (within) Asia, Intra Middle East, Intra Africa and Intra Americas are unaffected by current volcanic ash situation.

* Shipments moving between these “Rest of World” destinations (not involving a European origin or destination) are unaffected by the volcanic ash situation.

We expect as of end of this week all Intercontinental links between Europe and rest of the world will be fully restored. In the coming days we expect to have no back log of shipments except for Asia into Europe which we are constantly reducing.

UPS has released the following statement on their website:

Following the opening of more and more airports in Europe today, we have been able to start flying more inter-continental Express volume to the Americas.

However, air space and flight corridors remain closed over many countries in Europe because of the volcanic eruptions in Iceland, resulting in continued disruptions to UPS flights. Consequently, inter-continental air shipments to and from the Americas, Asia and Africa are experiencing delays.

Intra-European Express volume has been impacted to a much lesser extent and we have leveraged our best-in-class European ground network to implement contingency plans and shift air volume to ground to best serve our customers.

Our intra-European Standard ground service is operating as usual.

We are continuing to move intra-European Express volume through our ground network, allowing us to deliver as much of this volume as possible to our customers in Europe by the end of the business day for which it was scheduled.

For inter-continental volume from the Americas, Asia and Africa, we are using non-impacted airports in Europe and our ground network to ship as much volume as possible to its final destinations.

Pick-ups for all UPS services will take place across Europe as usual today.

UPS continues to closely monitor the situation, which has the potential to change from one hour to the next, and we continue to make adjustments to our transportation network to best serve our customers. This includes taking advantage of every opportunity to fly into additional airports as they open.

UPS service guarantees do not apply when transportation networks are disrupted by extraordinary circumstances such as these.

There is rumor of a UPS shipment leaving from China to Europe tonight however this will depend on conditions.

8.42 am April 21 2010 Beijing Time FedEx has started flying planes into Paris and airports are opening all over Europe.

6.51 pm April 20 2010 Beijing Time FedEx is set to start sending some items to Europe today according to the New York Times (nytimes.com/2010/04/20/world/europe/20melt.html).

DHL will increasing trucking capacity to minimize delays for shipments within Europe but a 3-5 day delay is expected for shipments moving between Europe and the rest of the world says the Wall Street Journal (online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703757504575194122549226724.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLENews)

UPS may re-route some flights through Turkey and is expecting a delay of 3 days according to Wall Street journal (online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704508904575192502761953336.html)

2.10 pm April 20 2010 Beijing Time The LA times (latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-0420-volcano-travel-20100420,0,3852786.story) says that some airspace in Northern Europe may open up today while the Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk/news/majornews/7609428/Iceland-volcano-new-ash-cloud-causes-further-disruption.html) predicts this will not include space above the UK.

According to the Wall Street Journal (online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100419-703036.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines) US and Oceanic flights to and from Hong Kong airport are also being affected.

11.27 am April 20 2010 Beijing Time
A Chinese notice on EMS’s website states that due to the closure of airports in Europe EMS is not able to send packages into Northern Europe at the moment. EMS will continue to accept, hold, process packages send them as soon as airspace reopens.

8.29 pm April 19 2010 Beijing Time An announcement on the UK DHL site states:

“Service delays following the eruption of Iceland’s volcano Eyjafjoll
The volcanic eruptions in Iceland have led to the closure of airspace over the majority of European countries. DHL will provide the most effective transport solution in this difficult environment to our global customers.”
“We expect 24-72 hour delay for shipments moving within Europe and a 3 to 5 day delay for shipments moving to and from Europe and Rest of World.”

“Our service will continue as normal for deliveries made in the following routes:”

*Shipments moving Intra Asia/ Intra Middle East & Africa/Intra Americas

*All Shipments moving between Rest of World destinations outside of Europe

4.47 pm April 19 2010 Beijing Time FedEx and UPS China have said they have currently stopped accepting items over 300kg. DHL has stopped accepting packages over 31kg. Read more in the blog post UPDATE: Couriers Won’t Take 300kg+ Items Due To Iceland Volcano Delays.

10.44 am April 19 2010 Beijing Time According to an Europe-bound Chinavasion staff member, currently stuck in Hong Kong airport, the international airports at Rome and Madrid are still open.

10.44 am April 19 2010 Beijing Time According to Sky News (news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Volcano-Ash-Travel-Information-After-Iceland-Eruption-Strands-150000-Britons-abroad/Article/201004315608305?lpos=UK_News_Top_Stories_Header_1&lid=ARTICLE_15608305_Volcano_Ash%3A_Travel_Information_After_Iceland_Eruption_Strands_150%2C000_Britons_abroad) Spain has opened up as a possible destination. According to Providing News (providingnews.com/breaking-news-test-flights-success-urges-europe-airports-to-reopen.html) some German and French airports are now open for low-level flights.

9.54 am April 19 2010 Beijing Time Air France, Lufthansa and Air Berlin carried out test flights yesterday which were successful. Air officials are now being pushed to allow people to fly again.

3.29pm April 18 2010 Beijing Time According to Reuters Shipping company FedEx Corp said more than 100 FedEx Express flights headed to Europe were rerouted, diverted or canceled within the past 72 hours (reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63E1TM20100418). The BBC says the number of affected airports has increased (news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8627545.stm) and is quoting European Officials as saying that European airspace could be disrupted for several days.

2.01pm April 18 2010 Beijing Time According to the UK Press Association Restrictions on flights in and out of the UK have been extended to 7pm today but scientists (essentially geologists and meteorologists) have told AL Jazeera that they can’t see an end of the situation (english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/04/201041822341405635.html).

12.38pm April 18 2010 Beijing Time DHL released a statement on their website on April 16 stating:

Service delays following the eruption of Iceland’s volcano Eyjafjoll
DHL confirms that it expects service disruptions on several European air traffic routes, due to the temporary closing of air space through national authorities in Northern Europe and parts of Western Europe, following the recent eruption of Iceland.s volcano Eyjafjoll.

The countries which have closed or partly closed their air space are Iceland, the UK and Northern Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.

DHL is monitoring the situation closely, and will process shipments in the affected regions as soon as possible.

11.40am April 18 2010 Beijing Time Fedex has released a statement on their website stating:

Due to the closure of major airports within Europe, effective immediately, FedEx Express has announced it is not accepting deferred international freight shipments bound for Europe. This embargo does not affect freight shipments to and from other countries and applies only to Europe. FedEx continues to monitor the situation closely and is positioning its operations to resume service as soon as major airports in Europe open. FedEx Express is trucking shipments within Europe.

While we, as a species, might like to think that we have tamed this planet which we occupy sometimes mother nature likes to remind us who is really in charge.

The eruption of the Icelandic volcano of Eyjafjallaj (wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull#2010_eruption) is an unfortunate example of this.

While the eruptions only resulted in the forced evacuation of 800 people the ash cloud thrown up by the second eruption caused all of Europe’s airspace to be closed grounding more than 17,000 flights in Europe and costing airlines US$200 million a day
according to the BBC (news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8626505.stm)

The main reason they have been grounded is because of the fate of British Airways, Flight 9 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9) where a commercial flight flew directly into the ash of the Jakarta eruption in 1982 and lost power to all of all of its engines.

What does this mean for Chinavasion customers?


Commercial flights aren’t the only ones to be grounded. courier flights may have also been grounded as well.

While there is no official word from FedEX (See updates box for statement from Fedex), DHL (See updates box for statement from DHL), or EMS HK Post and UPS have spoken out.

According to Business First Jackie Blair, a communications manager for the Louisville-based UPS Airlines, who talked to US news site business first (louisville.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2010/04/12/daily49.html) UPS’s air hub in Germany was closed at 2 a.m. Friday April 16 local time and was not expected to open until at least 4 p.m. Saturday April 17 local time.

Hong Kong Post said that “Due to the ash cloud from a volcano eruption in Iceland drifting over Europe, most airports across Europe are closed and there is disruption to flights. Mail services (including Speedpost) to European destinations are subject to delay until further notice.”

According to Chinavasion colleague in our UK office… “There’s a dry throat, sneezing, and a dusty taste in the mouth. Judging by the dust on windows and cars it does seem like a good idea to limit and divert flights at least for a couple more days.”

You should be able to get your packages delivered to you in much of the same record-setting time you have come to expect from Chinavasion as we are sure everything will return to normal very shortly. However, as one old proverb goes, forewarned is forearmed so keep an eye on this page and we will keep you updated as developments unfold.

Author xlxmarketing 17.4.2010. | 21:35
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10 Comments

  1. Jelena April 20, 08:07

    Hello!I would like to know aproximetly delivery time from Shanghai to Ireland?My parcel was send in 12 April by EMS and my tracking number is EE219854647CN. In EMS website write –>
    2010-04-12 23:06:51 SHANGHAI Despatch from Sorting Center .
    When it comes to Ireland?
    Thank You very much,sorry for bothering,but I really need this parcel before 26 April.

  2. Mohamed April 21, 03:16

    i ordered something i do not know when it is going to arrive it says left sorting center does anyone know when EMS are going to start sending packages ?

  3. Harold April 21, 17:23

    Hello!

    I would like to know aproximetly delivery time from GUANGZHOU to Spain? My parcel was send in 10 April by EMS and my tracking number is EE313972966CN. In EMS website write
    2010-04-10 23:49:00 GUANGZHOU Despatch from Sorting Center
    When it comes to Spain?

    Thank you

  4. Elizibeth April 22, 09:07

    Hi
    I Ordered Some Items From A Website That Offerd Ems As A Delivery Service, The Items Have Been To 2 Sorting Centers, It Was Despatched From The Last Sorting Center On The 15-04-2010.
    The Shipping Was From China To Uk.
    When Will I Recieve My Goods ?

  5. katie mcdoangh April 22, 21:50

    hi my freind is sending me a gift on the 24th of april by TnT express delivary when do you i will reckeve it. thanks

  6. Cian April 23, 01:20

    i would like to know when my parcel will get to my house in askeaton co.limerick as i ordered a dvd player with dhs and it says it has been delayed in shannon airport do you mark the parcels as a gift as i am wondering if i will get a customs charge on it

  7. Ben April 25, 00:05

    I have a parcel coming in from China via EMS shipping. It was last tracked on the 20th as leaving the country and there is no information as of yet on if it has entered the UK. Is this normal, is it part of the shipping via EMS being delayed or maybe it’s completely unrelated?

  8. kostas April 28, 21:23

    Hello,
    like many people, i worried about when to begin EMS sending packages to Europe. Do you know some NEW information; I hope to finish this problem quickly. Thank you.

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