Forwarders See Air Freight Screening Deadline Pass Smoothly

A 95 percent majority of air freight forwarders reported only minor or no problems in the first week of federal enforcement rules requiring 100 percent screening for cargo moving on passenger aircraft, according to the Airforwarders Association.

During the week of Aug. 2, 67 percent of the indirect air carriers that responded to a survey reported no problems at all. Another 28 percent reported “minor startup glitches.” The remaining 5 percent said they encountered serious problems. Some 60 IACs representing 709 individual air freight offices responded to the survey

The respondents also indicated no discernable pattern of problems among airlines or airports.

Video: Air Cargo Industry Meets Latest Screening Deadline

According to Brandon Fried, executive director of AFA, the IACs that reported no problems likened the start of mandatory screening to “Y2K” — the anticipation of computer problems preceding the start of the new millennium in 2000, which came without serious incidents.

Of respondents, 55 percent said they did not anticipate problems in the future; 39 percent said they were worried but cautiously optimistic. Six percent said they had serious reservations about the industry’s ability to scale up to meet higher volumes in coming months. August usually is a slow month for the industry.

“Clearly this is the result of a lot of hard work, planning and investment by all stakeholders, IACs, our trucking partners and TSA,” Fried said. He said the association will continue to survey members in coming weeks, and gather data from forwarders that belong to other associations.

-- Contact R.G. Edmonson at bedmonson@joc.com.