TIACA members report structural problems inhibiting coronavirus cargo operations

TIACA informed (31-Mar-2020) the ICAO technical group on joint actions related to COVID-19 of the following information provided by its members about operational problems during the pandemic:

• The existing structure of commercial rights within bilateral and multilateral agreements imposes restrictions on the necessity for quick change in air routes, which are caused by the necessities for delivery of emergency supplies medications and industry products which are of importance for the global trade and manufacturing recovery;
• It is important to allow airlines to quickly change the geography of the flights depending on the urgency in deliveries;
• Slots at airports remain a problem. A good example has been shown by Amsterdam Schiphol Airport which released slots for cargo operations. Other airports would be wise to follow this example;
• The danger of flight crew to be placed in quarantine after performing flights to destinations which are not considered as clean from the virus and the threat remains very high. Several airlines report problems with training and retraining their crews on flight simulators. Some flight simulators are situated in high risk countries and after visiting these individuals are to be placed in quarantine;
• Some countries do not allow transit of certain goods through their territories. This involves not only foods, including fruits and vegetables but also other commodities including the masks which initially traveled from Europe to China and now the traffic is reversed, and the masks go from China to Europe and other parts of the world. [more - original PR]