COVID-19 Air Freight and Sea freight Impacts.
Following the many necessary restrictions that governments and businesses are putting in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19, it is unsurprising to see that the airline industry is one of the hardest hit globally, with as much as a 90% drop in international schedules.
OUP airfreight a considerable number of Indent titles from our overseas branches, and in recent weeks we have seen a marked increase in transit times for delivering these titles to our customers, with transit routes constrained, and bookings harder to secure.
Additionally, a number of our international warehouses are also experiencing closures and delays, impacting all delivery timelines, regardless of whether they were originally scheduled via sea or air. At this stage it appears that these transit delays may become less predictable, as airlines and freight forwarding companies continue to respond to the evolving situation, and revise their scheduling accordingly.
In response to this fast-changing and challenging situation, we have decided to cease airfreight of all Indent titles until the situation improves. This decision does not apply to titles already ordered and en route.
Standard sailing transit days from the UK and US have increased, and we expect that orders will now take up to 12 weeks to reach our warehouse, to address this, where possible, we will make digital versions available. The good news is that our warehouse and distribution partner Startrack is part of the Australia Post Group, and they will continue to operate. This means that all in stock items should continue to get to you in a similar timeframe to what you would normally expect, with potential for minor delays due to the spikes in demand as a result of social distancing.
We apologise for any disruption this may cause, and will keep you up to date with any other developments.