Air freight avoids serious disruption from ash cloud

While a cloud of ash spewing from a Chilean volcano has disrupted commercial flights, stranding thousands of passengers in South America and as far away as New Zealand and Australia, the air freight industry has not been badly affected, according to UPS.

“The Chilean volcano has not caused any issues in the UPS Asia-Pacific network,” UPS spokesperson Mike Mangeot told the Handy Shipping Guide. “We have, however, experienced minor service disruptions in South America. We continue to monitor the situation and will move the volume as soon as it is safe to do so.”

In early June, a volcano in Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon Caulle mountain chain erupted, sending ash eastward that cancelled hundreds of flights amid fears of the ash cloud that had stretched over 6,000 miles.

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While South America’s air freight and commercial flight industry has come back on line, Australia is still suffering from the effects of the volcanic ash. Flights to Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle and other airports have been cancelled today due to the ash cloud, which will probably have an effect on the air freight industry on the continent as well.

“Airservices and meteorologists are closely monitoring a new ash cloud with the potential to seriously impact travel in much of south-east Australia in the next 12-48 hours,” The Australian Airservices said in a statement. “A large number of flights are expected to be disrupted over the coming days.”