A lack of skilled cargo handlers is now hampering the booming air freight business too.
When photos emerged of the largest cargo plane in the world, at Hostomel airport in Ukraine, Dan Morgan-Evans recalled the many times his company had chartered it for urgent freight deliveries.
"Those were some of the last charters we did with it as a company," says Mr Morgan-Evans. "It was madness." According to the International Air Transport Association , the cargo handling industry lost thousands of workers during the pandemic. Consequently, there is now a "severe shortage" of skilled ground handlers to move goods."There is enough capacity in the air but there's not the capacity on the ground," he says, saying the present situation is something of a "bottleneck".
Many cargo handling firms are tight-lipped about the situation. IAG Cargo recently announced its "biggest ever recruitment drive", with 500 roles available. However, a spokeswoman declined to comment on how the plan is going.Another company, dnata, is "not immune from the staff challenges facing the industry" but is "relatively well placed" to meet those challenges, a spokeswoman says.
Mr Drummond adds there is also a shortage of passenger baggage handlers at present. It takes time to recruit these workers and do the necessary security checks, he notes.