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US airports reel from west coast port congestion and fear more mayhem

MANY airports in the United States were inundated with air freight during the prolonged labour dispute at the major west coast sea ports that ended in February, and are still reeling from the affects, and fear the consequences of further port delays and congestion on their operations in future.

At Chicago O'Hare airport, truckers reported waiting for four to nine hours to enter to freight facilities. Some of this delay was due to road construction around the airport, but 200 unscheduled charters flying to Chicago in April and May added to the mayhem.

To this end executive director of the Airforwarder's Association, Brandon Fried, said 105 people turned up at a town hall meeting organised at Chicago O'Hare. The ground handlers reported being swamped, but unable to hire more help because security clearance for new personnel takes six weeks. Freight forwarders were also inundated, and had to spill over into airlines' warehouses.

Although the meeting was called to deal with problems at Chicago O'Hare, Mr Fried said there were two representatives from the Atlanta Airport, simply to observe. When he asked why they were there, he was told that the overcrowding was becoming unbearable in Atlanta, too.

"Things are starting to stabilise (from the port crisis), but it just shows what can happen as facilities get overwhelmed," said Mr Fried, reported Atlanta-area Air Cargo World.