News / Demand rush sparks temporary ban on imports at Bangkok Airport

13/02/2024

A surprise surge in air cargo demand in Asia has led to ground handler Bangkok Flight Services (BFS) announcing a temporary embargo on imports at Bangkok Airport (BKK), just 24 hours after a similar situation in Dubai.

BFS said: “Due to unprecedented volumes of cargo, due to the Red Sea crisis resulting in a modal shift from sea to air, and a higher than expected surge prior to Chinese New Year, we have built up a backlog of cargo for processing and have had to suspend processing of imports of general cargo.”

Yesterday, Dubail cargo terminal operator dnata placed a 48-hour embargo on cargo imports at its facilities at DXB. It too attributed the delay to “a significant surge in cargo volumes… particularly in import of general cargo”.

A source told The Loadstar: “The big pax carriers will be most affected by the embargo, especially Qatar Airways (QR), as it has about 10 flights a day to DXB.”

QR has warned its customers of the temporary embargo at BKK, scheduled to last until 18 February, and apologised.

BFS said the surge in demand had created a backlog at its warehouse and has waived its product storage charges during the embargo.

The source said: “They have to do that if they are in trouble… you cannot charge storage if you are causing the storage issue.”

In its most recent update, BFS explained that incoming shipments were unable to be sorted as there was no storage space in the warehouse. It said it had received a large number of products yesterday and was expecting more in the coming days.

However it added that the warehouse was “putting in all efforts to speed up the process of sorting backlog products, which aims to be completed within the week”.

It advised customers expecting cargo to check location information on the track & trace service page on its website.

The temporary embargo only applies to imported general cargo, but not perishables, pharma, dangerous goods or other types of specialised freight.