According to Drewry’s latest Voyage Cancellation Tracker, of the 553 scheduled flights on major trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic and Asia-North Europe and Mediterranean routes, 73 flights were cancelled between week 3 and week 6, for a 13 percent cancellation rate.
During this period, 64 percent of the cancelled flights were from trans-Pacific eastbound routes and were primarily to the U.S. West.
The report also shows that the most cancelled voyages over the next four weeks were by THE Alliance, which cancelled 30.5 voyages, followed by 2M Alliance and Ocean Alliance, which cancelled 15 and 10.5 voyages respectively.
Drury said in the report that with the recent spread of Omicron variant to some Chinese port cities, ports are under pressure, supply chain disruption and market volatility remain severe and avoiding delays remains very difficult.
In addition, MSC’s announcement on the 17th said that it plans to exclude some sailings in the 4th, 5th and 6th weeks of its trans-Pacific network due to an expected slowdown in demand around the Chinese Lunar New Year.
And it said the change will help it match capacity to the expected weak demand in the voyage service market. However, as MSC is arranging a contingency plan with alternative services, it can continue to book slots with limited disruptions.
