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Priority airfreight squeezed as UK cargo recovers from NATS failure

UK air cargo operators are working through backlogs, following yesterday's air traffic control failure, with pressure emerging on express and priority capacity as forwarders seek to protect customer delivery commitments. "We will see forwarders fighting for express capacity by upgrading the priority status on general cargo - with them absorbing any express or priority rate to ensure they meet their customer's SLA," a UK forwarder told The Loadstar. Carriers could respond by temporarily restricting acceptance of express bookings or raising priority rates until backlogs had been cleared, the forwarder added. However, the disruption is not expected to have a significant impact on general airfreight rates, while flight data suggests dedicated freighter operations at East Midlands and Stansted proved more resilient than Heathrow's bellyhold network. The disruption followed a technical problem with the NATS flight-processing system yesterday afternoon, which resulted in widespread restrictions on UK flights. NATS announced the problem at 1.46pm and, around three hours later, said it had implemented a fix and its flight system was beginning to recover. More than 1,750 flights were reported cancelled across the UK. The biggest impact on UK air cargo appears to have been at Heathrow, where cancellations of long-haul passenger services removed belly capacity on a number of major cargo routes. And Heathrow suspended arrivals for the remainder of yesterday, although departures resumed later. This morning, the airport said: "Heathrow's operations are recovering. Flights are operating today, however some knock-on disruption is expected as airlines reposition aircraft and crew." Flight data reviewed by The Loadstar confirmed the cancellation of a number of long-haul widebody services from Heathrow, including flights to North America, Asia, and Africa, while other long-haul services suffered significant delays. The UK forwarder said backlogs were inevitable, but carriers had continued accepting cargo despite the disruption, and some had recovered considerably faster than others. Virgin Atlantic Cargo and American Airlines Cargo were singled out as having recovered particularly well. Virgin Atlantic told customers: "While the technical issue affecting the NATS air traffic control system has now been resolved, recovery across the wider aviation industry is ongoing. Virgin Atlantic expects to operate its planned flying programme on Wednesday 9th September, although some shipments will continue to experience disruption as a result of the outage. Customers should check Track and Trace for the latest status update. "We have seen some carriers adopt creative routings to maximise all capacity ex-LHR and utilise alternative airports too." The forwarder added: "There will inevitably be backlogs and delays and each airline is recovering as best they can, in a way operationally suitable to them. "Carriers have continued to accept cargo despite backlogs, which is good." The relatively short duration of the underlying NATS problem should also limit the impact on the wider airfreight market. "NATS rectified the issue fairly quickly in the grand scheme of things, so we will not see any significant rate impact," the forwarder said. The forwarder warned that carriers could temporarily halt acceptance of express bookings or increase priority rates while backlogs were cleared. Meanwhile, flight data indicates that a number of key dedicated freighter services continued to operate despite the disruption. East Midlands Airport initially suspended 19 departures yesterday while awaiting further guidance from NATS, although arrivals remained unaffected at that stage. However, key freighter departures subsequently operated during the evening, including from Maersk Air Cargo and DHL, according to flight data reviewed by The Loadstar. DHL confirmed that its operation had been affected, but indicated that it had maintained services. "While yesterday's disruption had some operational impact, our teams responded quickly and worked throughout the day and night to minimise customer impact and maintain service continuity," a DHL spokesperson told The Loadstar. The movements suggest the UK's freighter gateways proved relatively resilient to the disruption, in contrast to Heathrow, where the cancellation of long-haul passenger flights immediately removed bellyhold capacity. While the full impact on freight volumes remains unclear, the relatively rapid restoration of the NATS system, continued operation of key freighter services, and airlines' efforts to reroute cargo suggest the disruption is likely to result in a short-lived capacity squeeze rather than a wider shock to the UK airfreight market.

Air Canada Cargo appoints Americas senior director of sales

Air Canada Cargo has appointed Nicolas Saignat as senior director of cargo sales for its Americas region. Saignat will be based at the cargo company's Montréal headquarters and will lead commercial activities across the region, with a focus on "deepening customer relationships, supporting freight forwarders and shippers, and advancing Air Canada Cargo's growth across key markets in the Americas". According to his LinkedIn profile, Saignat has more than 20 years of experience in the air cargo market, having worked for Air France KLM Martinair Cargo, WestJet Cargo and CEVA Logistics. Most recently, he was vice president, airfreight product manager, North America at CEVA. Air Canada Cargo said that throughout his career, Saigant has led regional commercial teams, supported airfreight product development, strengthened strategic partnerships, and delivered growth in complex and highly competitive markets. "His experience will support Air Canada Cargo's continued focus on providing customers with market expertise and with reliable and responsive service across the region," the airline said. Matthieu Casey, managing director, commercial, Air Canada Cargo, added: "Nicolas's strong commercial background and deep understanding of the air cargo market will be important as we continue to strengthen our customer relationships and grow across the Americas. "His leadership will help us stay close to our customers' evolving needs and deliver the cargo solutions they rely on."

Leading air cargo verticals see demand levels diverge

E-commerce and AI data centre-related volumes have been fuelling air cargo demand growth over recent years, but the performance of the two verticals has increasingly diverged over recent months. Speaking at this week's EU Cross-Border E-Commerce Forum in Liege, Aevean head of consulting Maarten Wormer highlighted the rapid growth of demand for data centre-related air imports. Over the first seven months of the year, he said, data centre volumes into the US were up by 103% year on year and reached 107,000 tonnes in July - the equivalent to 1,000 freighter flights. Drilling further into the segment, Wormer said that over the seven-month period, US air imports of network equipment were up 130% year on year, there was a 37% increase in power infrastructure, computer components increased 86% and servers were up 181%. In contrast, e-commerce volumes from China to the European Union declined by 29% year on year in July following the introduction of a €3 charge for low-value package imports. The volume decline to France had started in March when volumes dropped by 30% as it introduced its own charge in anticipation of the EU levy, Wormer said. In July, e-commerce volumes into France had declined by 64%. Despite the decline in China-Europe e-commerce demand, Wormer said that the overall air cargo market had been growing this year. Aevean figures show that over the first seven months of 2026, air cargo volumes are up 5.8% year on year, primarily led by Asia Pacific to North America volumes, which have increased by 24% on 2025 levels. Meanwhile, volumes from Asia Pacific to Europe had increased by 4% year on year. Intra-Asia volumes had improved by 8% and there was also an 8% improvement from Asia Pacific to South America. The trade lane to record the largest fall in demand was Asia Pacific to the Middle East as a result of the ongoing US-Iran conflict.