Staff at East Midlands Airport are doing their bit to get online orders and vital deliveries including medical supplies out during the Covid-19 emergency.
The airport on the Leicestershire/Derbyshire border has seen an increase in the number of cargo flights coming and going in recent weeks.
It comes after parent company Manchester Airports Group said it had cut staff wages and applied measures including enforced annual leave, reduced working hours and temporary lay-offs during the crisis.
Group chief executive Charlie Cornish recently said: “I am in no doubt that this outbreak is the greatest threat the 海角视频’s travel sector has ever faced.”
In normal times, East Midlands is second only to Heathrow for air shipments, handling more than 320,000 tonnes of cargo a year.
Despite the temporary cutbacks management said they were playing a key role helping keep the economy ticking over during the lockdown.
DHL, UPS, FedEx and Royal Mail all have big operations there, and their staff along with airport workers have been designated as key workers by the Government.
Management said they were working around the clock to ensure next-day-deliveries, including essential items for hospitals, shops and millions of people isolated at home.
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Between them, they are handling more than 1,000 tonnes of goods a day.
Over the past two weeks, cargo aircraft movements increased by an average of 7.4 per cent a day, driven by things such as:
- A sudden need for more urgent medical and PPE equipment, including facemasks
- Taking flights from airports that are now closed at night
- Compensating for a drop in long-haul passenger flights at other 海角视频 airports which would normally carry cargo alongside passenger luggage
- More people shopping online and ordering goods for home delivery, many of which come from overseas
- Increased operations by established carriers with bases at the airport
At the same time the airport continues to operate more than half of its scheduled flights – which it said was more than any other major European airport.
Management said latest European air traffic statistics, published by Eurocontrol, showed EMA had seen the smallest drop in flight numbers of any major airport in Europe over the last week, followed by Bergen, Stavanger and Cologne.
It said that every other major 海角视频 airport saw aircraft movements fall by at least 60 per cent last week compared with the same week in 2019.
East Midlands, on the other hand, has continued to operate 60 per cent of its scheduled flights – dominated by cargo deliveries.
Even before the crisis, as traditional travel patterns changed, the airport was building on its cargo facilities.
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In the last two years, more than £200 million has been invested in handling facilities at the airport by big logistics companies.
Management said its central location put it within four hours of 90 per cent of the population of England and Wales, adding it helps put £1 billion into the region’s economy and handles around £40 billion of international trade.
Its managing director Karen Smart said: “East Midlands Airport is providing around the clock support to the fight back against COVID-19.
“It is at times like these when EMA really demonstrates its national value and shows how important airfreight is to keeping Britain moving.
“The airport is a vital lifeline for businesses that need to get products to market quickly, the NHS frontline, and those R&D companies that are working flat out to develop new medicines which can help combat crippling viruses such as Covid-19.
“Our location means that we’re perfectly placed to serve a huge population, some of whom are in urgent need of rapid deliveries.
“We are still open for business 24 hours a day and so the role we play in the coming weeks and months will only step up a gear as EMA and our onsite logistics partners act as the gateway to the 海角视频 for essential goods.”
Uvamed – a Loughborough-based manufacturer of medical equipment, relies on the airport and the logistics expertise based there to export its products to hospitals around the world.
In recent weeks it has seen a surge in demand for its syringe trays, especially from Italian hospitals which are overwhelmed by the Coronavirus epidemic.
Director Bev Fawdington said: “It’s really important for us to have the airport on our doorstep.
“The fact that it is so geared up to supporting businesses like ours with the exporting of goods is hugely beneficial, no more so than at the current time.
“Our products, which are in demand from hospitals all over the world, can be collected at lunchtime by a courier and be at the hospital overseas by lunchtime the next day.”