Extreme UK weather forces SA flights to divert

ALTHOUGH EXTREME weather conditions in the UK have seriously affected the country’s freight industry, with flights unable to land at Heathrow last Sunday night, the main SA seafreight services have held their course. At time of writing (March 14) the two vessels in the SA Europe Container Service (Saecs) fleet which were in British waters were the MOL Cullinan and the Maersk Vera Cruz. According to David Williams, MD of Maersk Line in SA, the Cullinan was held up for 16-hours at its container port on the Thames as a storm raged. “But,” he said, “this has a negligible impact on the overall Saecs schedule.” Multi-purpose line Macs – which serves the breakbulk trade on the SA-Europe trade – also reported business as usual. “We have had no reports of any vessel delays because of the UK’s storm conditions,” said Macs’ Markus Popken. For airfreight shippers, however, a British Airways flight last Sunday night (March 9) was forced to divert from Heathrow to Birmingham. While passengers were transported by coach to Heathrow on March 10, cargo arrived on Tuesday morning (March 11). All London-terminating cargo was released immediately while transhipment cargo was rebooked and customers advised. South African Airways faced similar challenges with its Sunday flight diverted to Amsterdam also arriving in London on Tuesday March 11.