THE disruption to the marine shipping industry due to the geopolitical situation in the Red Sea has had a ripple effect on air cargo, reports London's Airport Technology.
Shipping lines have been forced to divert vessels, change schedules, or even plan entirely new routings to avoid the region, with rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope pushing transit times up by 10-15 days.
These disruptions have led to multi-modal, or hybrid sea-air transport, becoming more popular again, particularly on routes from Asia to Europe where shipping delays have been most acute, and for the highest value, time-sensitive goods.
'There were attempts to establish new land-air connections across the Middle East to avoid the need to use shipping through the Red Sea,' says James Hookham, director of the Global Shippers Forum.
'These were primarily aimed at serving the eastern Mediterranean market, which had gone from being the 'first stop after the Suez' to becoming a 'cul-de-sac' served by feeder ships out of Algiceras and Tanger Med.'
Concerns around the reliability of ocean freight mounted further as the threat of a strike by members of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) grew, something that came to fruition in October when dockworkers walked out of 14 major US ports along both the east and Gulf coast.
While strike action only lasted three days, although the threat isn't fully over as the union has stated it is pausing strike action until January while negotiations take place.
SeaNews Turkey
Shipping lines have been forced to divert vessels, change schedules, or even plan entirely new routings to avoid the region, with rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope pushing transit times up by 10-15 days.
These disruptions have led to multi-modal, or hybrid sea-air transport, becoming more popular again, particularly on routes from Asia to Europe where shipping delays have been most acute, and for the highest value, time-sensitive goods.
'There were attempts to establish new land-air connections across the Middle East to avoid the need to use shipping through the Red Sea,' says James Hookham, director of the Global Shippers Forum.
'These were primarily aimed at serving the eastern Mediterranean market, which had gone from being the 'first stop after the Suez' to becoming a 'cul-de-sac' served by feeder ships out of Algiceras and Tanger Med.'
Concerns around the reliability of ocean freight mounted further as the threat of a strike by members of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) grew, something that came to fruition in October when dockworkers walked out of 14 major US ports along both the east and Gulf coast.
While strike action only lasted three days, although the threat isn't fully over as the union has stated it is pausing strike action until January while negotiations take place.
SeaNews Turkey
