Airport Issues in New York, Frankfurt, Munich Leading to Cancellations and Diversions

Labor strikes in Frankfurt and Munich coupled with a power outage at New York/JFK have led to numerous cancellations and diversions on international flights from Thursday through Friday. All Lufthansa flights operating from the airline’s hubs at Frankfurt and Munich were canceled Friday due to a strike by the Verdi trade union. Over 1,300 flights were canceled as a result.

The strike follows an IT outage at the Frankfurt airport earlier in the week that led to a stoppage of flights.

Hurricane Ian is currently striking the west coast of Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, yielding damaging winds and severe flooding. Winds of up to 150 mph (241 kmh) have been recorded, and storm surges are expecting of up to 12-18 ft in parts of the state.

Ocean Freight
Measures taken by governments, carriers, and ports have thus far failed to remedy the capacity shortage and congestion crisis. Ocean carriers have recorded record-high Q3 profits at a time that they have failed to adequately add capacity, failed to control port congestion, and raised freight rates.

Hurricane Ida struck the state of Louisiana Sunday as a category 4 storm, causing severe weather through the Southeast US as the storm moves inland as a tropical storm. The storm is considered one of the worst in the region’s history, and is having numerous effects on logistics operations both in the Southeast and nationally.

The Compass team is continuing to work closely with our clients to navigate the challenges of the current logistics market. As part of that effort, please find our most recent market assessment. We remain committed to helping all our clients and partners better understand these evolving challenges and working with them to ensure their supply chains remain stable.

Although media reporting suggests that the incident involving the Ever Given in the Suez Canal is resolved, the fallout on the international seafreight market continues to be strong a month after the canal was cleared. For one, the Ever Given and its 18,000 containers remain off the coast of Egypt and have been impounded pending a reported USD $916 million fine over the incident.

With annual U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) safety inspections scheduled for the week of May 2, customers should expect further disruptions to an already volatile inland transportation market. Each year, the number of available drivers and trailers in the market drops during inspections week, causing rates to temporarily spike. Inspections week – also known as Blitz Week – involves random checkpoints being set up around the country verifying compliance with DOT trucking regulations. Many drivers avoid driving during Blitz Week, restricting capacity.