As sure as an open space of a lovely park in Turin beckons some old men to gather, albeit at the requisite distance apart, signs of life in Northern Italy are continuing inspite of the not quite reassuring headlines.
     “Supplies are plentiful,” reports Marco Sorgetti, our man on the ground in Turin, his home town.

Down On The Ground

     “As seen today in most supermarkets and chemists', few Italian residents (never too many) wait for their turn to be served.
     “The lines are not long, save at rush hours, and the waiting time is a good opportunity to chat at a distance.
     “Some people elsewhere in other countries may have said:
     “Italians would not abide by the rules.
     “But the truth is that people here have started to realize for the most part, we are all in this pandemic together. This message is filtering from the first affected areas in the north of the country to the south. The new measures just adopted by the government will test both the ability of the virus to expand into the country and hopefully impede it, and the resilience of the country’s supply chains, which will be disrupted.

The Shut Down Is Working

     “Generally speaking, good behavior has been kicked up a notch and, with very few exceptions, Italians are conducting themselves with a welcome amount of civility in most matters, in a situation that appears both new and alarming to most.
     “There is a quiet determination in the vast number of Italian people, young and old these days.
     “We have to see how the Italians will take these new stringent measures that have been adopted by the government under pressure from the northern regions’ governors, in particular Lombardy with Milan.

Ships Moving Italian Ports Are Open

     “On the shipping side Italian ports and inland transportation are open with special government exemptions from the lockdown that is impacting other areas of business in the country, e.g. entertainment, restaurants and any other services that are not considered vital or essential.
     “Most major shipping companies allow work from home as part of their regular plan and some warehouses will be open to ensure vital supplies.
     “Shippers obviously should expect delays due to regional postal service and courier delivery restrictions and air cargo capacity limitations.

Word Up FedEx & UPS

     “The U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, and UPS have all advised shippers that local operations in the Lombardy and Veneto regions of Italy have either been severely restricted or are temporarily suspended. However, “my ‘postino’ has come so far every day to deliver my mail, and even a present from a friend in the UK, a welcome arrival to be sure.

Service Cuts All Around

     “Several carriers have suspended flights to Milan, which further reduces air cargo capacity to and from the region.
     “But the quarantine strategy first used in Wuhan, China at the outbreak of COVID-19, has taken hold in a similar fashion in Italy.
     “So far, with prudence and care, we hope we get out of these dire straits soon, but even when Italian authorities allow the most affected areas and cargo deliveries to resume their normal routines, clearing the slowdown of possibly stopped shipments may take some time.
     “Being wise and seriously forward-looking is the best strategy in this period.”
Marco/Geoffrey

Most of the talk in the world today is about the human condition in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone is praying that it does not become a plague.
     From the City of Wuhan in Hubei Province, China, the most unwelcome thing ever “Made in China” a coronavirus, nobody knows how to tame, let alone cure, has in a few short weeks, maybe forever altered the way humans live and work in almost every corner of planet earth.
     For air cargo planners hoping to get out to meet and greet customers and network at a transportation trade show, it’s a whole new ballgame.
     Here are some events, big and small, that benchmark the air cargo year and what has happened in just the past few weeks since COVID-19 burst upon the world.
     As this is written, the 26th Intermodal South America is still scheduled in Sao Paulo, Brazil for March 17-19.
     The success of arguably the biggest transportation and logistics trade show in the Americas seems to fly into the face of the COVID-19 pandemic scare right now. We hear from a FlyingTypers source in Europe that as many as “50% plus of the exhibitors and attendees at the Sao Paulo event have cancelled.”
     On their website, Intermodal South America, which is organized by Informa PLC., says that the show will go on as planned.
     “We reinforce,” the website states, “with respect to the confirmed exhibitors, the dates for the 26th Intermodal South America are kept.
     “Therefore, any rumors relating to the cancellation of the trade show are not accurate.
     “The event organizers,” Informa said, “opted for the continuity out of respect for the exhibitors who have already confirmed their presence and the visitors who have already performed their pre-accreditation, which amounts to 11% more in volume of accreditation as compared to the same period last year.”
     Intermodal South America claimed more than 32,000 attendees in 2019, drawing in more than 550 exhibitors including airlines, forwarders, heavy equipment, and more from over 22 countries all across the globe.
     Informa PLC. is the world’s largest operator of events and exhibitions.
     Informa, according to The Financial Times of London has had to scrap or postpone events worth more than USD$580 million during the COVID-19 global rampage.
     Informa, publisher of the granddaddy shipping publication, the 282 year-old Lloyd's List, realizes two thirds of its revenues and profits from trade shows.
     Since onset of COVID-19, Informa has seen its stock lose more than a quarter of value in just the past three weeks.

Seafood Boston Falls Victim to COVID-19

     The Seafood Expo North America, also known as the Boston Seafood Show, harbinger of Spring for the past 40 years, has cancelled its event scheduled for March 15-17 at the Hynes Convention Center in downtown Boston.
     The self-proclaimed “Seafood Marketplace for North America”, an enormous industry event organized by a company called Diversified Communications draws the entire gamut of service providers including freight forwarders and airlines plus hundreds of fish suppliers and buyers.
     But the hammer here could be the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority that may not have wanted an event with estimated twenty-five thousand people in close quarters, eating and drinking and doing business during the three-day event.
     The trade show organizer said that they are looking at “alternative options.”

CNS Partnership In Texas April 26

     CNS Partnership President “Gentleman” Mike White writes, “Over the past few days, many of our members and partners inquired about the 30th CNS Partnership Conference, which is scheduled to take place in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, April 26-28.
     “At this stage, the CNS team continues to plan accordingly for the 2020 edition.
     “We are grateful for the support of our sponsors, exhibitors and delegates who continue to plan ahead with us,” Gentleman Mike writes.
     “If the situation changes, we will inform you immediately and all delegates would be eligible for a credit or a refund.
     “The same would apply if you were unable to join us because of travel restrictions from your company or your government.
     “For further information, please reach out to our customer service team at cns@mcveigh.com or www.cnsc.net for weekly updates,” Gentleman Mike concludes.

Cargo Chalets Are Key

     While the official word from CNS is that the show is a go, this year’s CNS Partnership Conference marks 30 years of a truly grand and good event. One of the reasons CNS is a gem of a yearly event is because of the tremendous networking opportunities afforded to the airline forwarder partners.
     At CNS, somewhere on the grounds of the Conference hotel location are “The Chalets” where the airlines host an almost non-stop succession of appointments with their major customers during every day of the CNS Partnership Conference.
     The Chalets are the focal rendezvous locations where airline and freight forwarders meet face-to-face, back-to-back, even having food brought in, to maximize the allotted time.
     Will the customers show up in face of mounting calls to hunker down at home or will CNS suffer the fate of IATA World Cargo Symposium, that as you read this was supposed to be in high gear earlier this week in Istanbul, or the cancelled FIATA Headquarters session in Zurich March 26?
     Both of these great events were cancelled as COVID-19 concerns continue to escalate.
     For air cargo, maybe this coronavirus journey into the unknown, is telling us that it is time to step back and allow this strange trip we are all on to play out, so that later we can get back together at a time, when things have settled down.

JFK Air Cargo Expo Called Off

     On Monday March 8, The JFK Air Cargo Association(ACA) in New York sent out an e-mail survey asking people expecting to attend the JFK Air Cargo Expo 2020 scheduled for later this month on Thursday, March 26, 2020 their views on rescheduling the event.
     Well, the results were apparently overwhelming negative, as less than 24 hours later the Expo was cancelled for March 26.
     On the association website it is stated that the event would be rescheduled for later this year.
     “We have made the extremely difficult but necessary decision to postpone,” the announcement continued.
     “We had to make some quick, tough decisions and the health, safety, and well-
being of our attendees comes first.
     “We are now quickly working on some potential dates to hold the event.”
Stay tuned.
Geoffrey