Newsletter – September 30, 2022

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

How Canadian LCC Flair Intends To Increase Its Capacity By 50% Next Summer

simpleflying.com
Earlier today, Flair Airlines announced that it would increase its summer 2023 capacity by 50% and will add seven new aircraft into service next summer.
In a call with the media earlier today, Flair Airlines shared a few significant updates involving its summer 2023 schedule.  Read more here.

Cargo area modernisation at LAX at last – a relief for frustrated forwarders

theloadstar.com
One of the major gateways for international air cargo is set for a sweeping overhaul of its cargo infrastructure.
Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) has invited proposals for the modernisation of its cargo facilities at LA International (LAX). Read more here (login required).

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Box contract rates fall

splash247.com
The latest data from the Xeneta Shipping Index reveals long-term contracted rates fell by 1.1% in September. This is the first drop since January and one of only three declines in the past 21 months. However, analysts at Oslo-based Xeneta expect it won’t be the last. Read more here.

Liverpool port faces further strike action

splash247.com
Nearly 600 Liverpool port workers are set to stage an additional week-long strike next month in a dispute over pay.
Unite, the union representing workers at Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC), part of Peel Ports, currently engaged in a two-week strike that ends on Sunday, will strike for a second time, starting October 11. Read more here.

Shipping giant Maersk: ‘Significantly less demand’ but ‘no hard landing’

freightwaves.com
It’s getting increasingly ugly for shipping lines in the trans-Pacific market. Spot rates are sliding relentlessly with each passing week. Liners are starting to suspend entire service strings: Maersk just dropped two trans-Pacific services, MSC and Matson canceled one each.
Is Maersk CEO Soren Skou — whose company operates the world’s second largest liner company — getting worried yet? Read more here.  

GROUND AND RAIL FREIGHT UPDATES

Railroad executives want to eliminate conductors — and exhausted rail workers are terrified

freightwaves.com
It was 11 p.m. on Jan. 3, 2022, when rail conductor Brian Raleigh got the call from Norfolk Southern that he would need to come into work.
Raleigh, who joined Norfolk Southern in 2004, drove to the railyard in Decatur, Illinois. He started setting up rail cars hauling soybeans, corn, chemicals and other commodities from the rural town. But he didn’t feel so good — just a cold, he figured.  Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS –  GOVERNMENT UPDATES

The latest on Ian’s impact on the supply chain

freightwaves.com
Floridians are starting to assess the damage created by Hurricane Ian a day after it slammed into the Gulf Coast as a massive Category 4 storm. By Thursday morning, Ian had been downgraded to a tropical storm, but a threat remains as it continues to bring heavy winds and rain to the state.
As of 11:54 a.m. EDT, more than 2.6 million Floridians were without power, with some counties, including Hardee, almost completely in the dark.  Read more here.