Alongside International Air Transport Association (IATA), Air Cargo France Association (ACFA) is lending its full support to governments working to stem the spread of COVID-19.
Since the beginning of this sanitary crisis, the air cargo sector has been vital to ensuring the delivery of medicines and medical equipment and to keep supply chains functioning. Air cargo has also been essential in transportation of food and other products purchased online in order to support the quarantines and social distancing policies established by States.
The cancellation of more than 185,000 passenger flights since the end of January has resulted a significant loss of cargo capacity at a time when the world needs it most in its worldwide battle against COVID-19.
ACFA is requesting the French government and European authorities to take exceptional measures to ensure that air freight is available to stem the global pandemic.
Air freight must be considered as an essential element in the fight against COVID-19 and the following measures must be adopted:
- Free freight operations from all travel restrictions related to COVID-19 to ensure the delivery of life-saving medical products without hindrance.
- Air cargo must be considered as a strategic activity and be allowed to continue in the event of containment, particularly with respect to operations that cannot be teleworked (trucking, palletizing, handling, etc.).
- Put in place standardised procedures to ensure that air freight can circulate around the world without disruption.
- Accelerate the processing of collect for customs duty credit vouchers in order to improve companies cash flow.
- Support temporary moving rights for cargo operations in locations where restrictions are in place.
- Remove economic barriers such as overflight charges and slot restrictions to support cargo operations during this period of sanitary crisis.