Cargo airlines cancel hundreds of China flights amid COVID outbreak

Chinese restrictions to control a spike in COVID infections have severely curtailed cargo operations at several airports and reduced crew availability, forcing airlines to cancel hundreds of flights as the peak shipping season kicks into high gear in a sector already struggling to keep up with high demand.

The most current data from logistics providers and risk intelligence analysts shows that 531 flights, or 43% of the daily total, were canceled from Beijing and that airlines scrubbed 408 flights, a third of the daily total, at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, as of Aug. 6. Two-thirds of the flights were canceled in Xiamen. And Sunan Shuofang International Airport, which serves the cities of Wuxi and Suzhou in southern Jiangsu province, is not accepting import cargo.

Chinese airlines scale back

Chinese carriers, including Air China, have canceled almost all cargo-only passenger flights to the U.S. because of the new quarantine measures covering China-domiciled pilots so they have enough crews to operate their pure freighters.

China Eastern Airlines has suspended passenger freighters, used for dedicated cargo customers during the hiatus in air travel, until September, it said in a notice. China Southern also suspended auxiliary freighters to the U.S. through August and canceled 25% of its European and U.S. freighter flights, according to a market update from Hong Kong-based Hippo Logistics.

Other passenger and cargo airlines that have canceled flights, according to information provided by AIT Worldwide Logistics in Itasca, Illinois, include:

•  S.F. Express, a large integrated logistics company in China that operates its own in-house airline. It has stopped all charter flights to the U.S. and reduced scheduled flights from Shenzhen to Los Angeles from three times to once per week.
• China Airlines, scrubbed passenger freighters to London Heathrow Airport on Aug. 6 and 8.
• Dubai-based Emirates, canceled two flights to the U.S. and Frankfurt, Germany, from China this week.
• Hainan Airlines, which canceled three cargo-only flights to Los Angeles next week.
• Polar Air Cargo, a joint venture between Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings and DHL Express. It has stopped flying inbound freight to China from the U.S.

Total international cancellations equate to about a 30% cut in capacity, according to AIT Worldwide.

Logistics experts say rates are likely to skyrocket because the service cutbacks are hitting at the same time demand to move seasonal holiday goods increases and many businesses turn to air because of massive backlogs in ocean shipping.