Airlines, freight forwarders, importers and exporters are pressing Thai Airways to quickly correct a system breakdown in cargo terminals it operates at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, which has resulted in costly delays for manufacturing supply chains, according to local media reports and logistics firms.
Warehouse workers are having difficulty locating and processing shipments because the cargo clearance system developed by Airports of Thailand, which manages the airport, and Thai Airways isn’t recording their storage location and status, according to the Thai Airfreight Forwarders Association (TAFA). Large amounts of cargo remain on pallets and containers waiting to be broken down.
Details of the situation were reported by The Nation and local business publication Thansettakij. Hundreds of containers are sitting unattended.
Why It Matters: The delays are taking place during the peak shipping season in a country that is a key piece of the electronics and AI infrastructure ecosystem. Top export categories are electrical machinery and equipment, with local manufacturing propelled by the worldwide surge in demand for AI-related cloud storage. Major export destinations remain the United States, China, and Japan, where demand for advanced electronics continues to rise. Thailand also is a large exporter of auto parts and rubber products. About 22% of Thailand’s exports last year went to the United States, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
Thai Cargo has taken measures to respond to severe warehouse congestion caused by uncollected cargo, which could further reduce air cargo capacity and cause delays, freight forwarder EFL Global said in a customer alert last week.
The cargo division of Thai Airways has suspended service for freighter aircraft through the end of November, until further notice. It also asked airlines to restrict inbound cargo by 50%, between Oct. 31 to Nov. 7, or consolidate shipments in containers to reduce warehouse storage requirements. Airlines were told to provide advance notification of inbound container shipments, EFL said.
Dimerco Express said in a market update that some airlines have downgraded Asia routes to narrowbody aircraft and are restricting bookings while they clear cargo stacks. Ground handler Bangkok Freight Services is also experiencing delays, it said. Shippers are urged to book flights several days ahead of need.
The Thai Chamber of Commerce warned that the congestion at Thai Airway’s warehouse is now threatening to disrupt outbound shipments too, the Bangkok Post reported.
Singapore Airlines Cargo temporarily restricted acceptance of certain cargo types at Suvarnabhumi last Wednesday because delayed inbound handling was affecting container flows for outbound shipments, while equipment and operating space were limited, the paper said.
Airports of Thailand has stepped in to coordinate talks among stakeholders in an effort to minimize disruption, according to local news outlets.
The Thai Chamber of Commerce has urged sorting cargo by airline, speeding up container breakdown, assigning clearly identified storage locations, increasing manpower with support from private-sector freight agents under warehouse supervision, and updating the cargo clearance system with accurate, current cargo-location information.
Sorting cargo by airline and assigning clear storage locations would speed up retrieval, while faster breakdown of unit load devices would restore equipment for outbound shipments.
Without shipment visibility, freight forwarders and customs brokers can’t complete payments and release procedures.
Thai Airways has apologized to customers and airlines, and said it is adding staff and forklifts, prioritizing deliveries and seeking temporary warehouse space from Airports of Thailand, the Bangkok Post reported. The ground handler also plans to introduce an internal warehouse management system to track cargo from the point of arrival.
Thai Airways is giving priority to finding and processing shipments that arrived before Oct. 23.
In late September, flooding caused by heavy rains prevented many workers from reporting to work at Suvarnabhumi Airport, leading to longer processing and transit times.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.
RELATED STORIES:
East Midlands Airport welcomes another Chinese cargo airline
Miami airport to deploy shared logistics platform for cargo community
