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IT outage brings chaos to Lufthansa cargo handling at German hubs

Lufthansa Cargo's handling operations across its Frankfurt and Munich hubs were brought to a shuddering halt at the weekend following an IT outage, which left forwarders scrambling for alternatives amid an escalating cargo backlog. Details of the situation were made known to The Loadstar by sources close to the carrier, with customers told in a memo that "global" disruption affecting the German flag-carrier's IT service provider was leading to "service impairments". A Lufthansa Cargo spokesperson confirmed that "our handling system experienced service impairments last Saturday for around six hours", adding that, "temporarily", cargo acceptance at both Frankfurt and Munich was limited. The spokesperson told The Loadstar: "Some isolated shipment delays and necessary re-bookings may still occur. We can't give exact details about the number of affected bookings as most of the transports had not been cancelled but had been shifted." Alongside not furnishing details on how many shipments had been affected by the outage, Lufthansa's spokesperson also declined to state how long the outage lasted. However, at 3pm on Saturday they were warning customers a solution was still several hours away. And there were no details forthcoming on which IT service provider's systems had been affected, although the carrier is believed to use IBS Software's systems to run its ground handling operations. Two years ago, Lufthansa Cargo was one of a slew of European carriers that witnessed their operations go offline following a Microsoft outage brought about by a software update at one of the tech giant's security providers. Xeneta's chief airfreight officer, Niall van de Wouw, said at the time: "Air supply chains are highly complex, so disruption of this scale could have a severe impact. Planes and cargo are not where they are supposed to be, and it will take days or even weeks to fully resolve. "These incidents can take three times as long to resolve as the length of time they last, but that is very much dependent on the scale of the IT failure and the market conditions at the time it occurs." While the extent of this weekend's incident is not believed to have been anything close to that experienced in 2024, forwarders told The Loadstar it served as a reminder of how reliant the industry had become on tech in the past decade.

Global air freight rates take a dip as volumes lose height

Global airfreight volumes declined in the first full week of August, with chargeable weight falling from all origins as pricing and capacity edged down, according to WorldACD. Global tonnage dropped 4% week on week in week 32 (3-9 August), following a mild rally. Volumes fell 6% from the Middle East and South Asia (MESA), 4% from Europe and North America, 3% from Asia Pacific, and 2% from both Africa and Central and South America. Despite the weekly decline, global traffic was up 1% year on year, with growth of 1% to 2% from all origins except Europe, where it fell 1%. WorldACD said traffic had "fluctuated within a narrow band" over the past four weeks, alternating between contraction and growth. Comparing the latest two weeks with the previous fortnight, global chargeable weight was down 1%, led by declines from Asia Pacific and North America. Global capacity fell 1% week on week, while the average airfreight rate slipped from $2.96 in week 31 to $2.95, "driven largely by lower fuel costs", according to WorldACD. However, rates still remained 22% above year-earlier levels. Asian exports were particularly weak, with volumes from Asia Pacific to both Europe and the US showing a 4% decline week on week. Japan was an exception, however, its tonnage to the US rising 12% and to Europe 3%, while shipments from Taiwan to the US fell 11%, and Indonesia declined 10%. Typhoon Dolphin disrupted flows from China, causing evacuations in Shanghai and Beijing and more than 1,000 flight cancellations in Shanghai alone. Its port and other Chinese maritime gateways were also affected, potentially encouraging some exporters to shift cargo from ocean to air. Overall, China's airfreight tonnage fell 5%, while chargeable weight from Shanghai fell 8% week on week, including a 12% decline on intra-Asia routes. WorldACD also pointed to the lingering impact of the end of the de minimis exemption for ecommerce entering the EU. China mainland to Europe tonnage was down 8% year on year, while Hong Kong to Europe volumes plunged 29%. This was echoed by Maersk in its European update today. The Danish carrier said: "Since the removal of the €150 duty-free threshold, low-value air cargo imports into Europe have fallen by almost 33% year on year, reinforcing a broader shift away from ecommerce-driven volumes and toward higher-value cargo." It noted that, in its air freight division, European import volumes continued to expand in May, while exports remained in decline - "reflecting a more cautious demand environment across parts of the manufacturing sector". WorldACD said rising rates to Europe from China and Hong Kong, alongside falling transpacific prices, suggested freighter capacity previously used for ecommerce shipments to Europe may have shifted towards the transpacific market.

De minimis is dead, and now legally buried

Key takeaway: The Court of International Trade's ruling that IEEPA authorizes the President to revoke duty-free treatment for sub-$800 imports removes the last legal uncertainty hanging over a year-old policy shift that has already reshaped cross-border parcel economics. The last shippers hoping the courts might resurrect the de minimis exemption can stop hoping. On August 13, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled unanimously that President Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to eliminate duty-free treatment ...