Qantas’ freight division has suffered an IT nightmare that’s sent cargo operations into disarray.
The airline attempted to switch to a “new, fully integrated cloud-based” management system on September 24 – but things didn’t go according to plan.
The new system, which was meant to streamline the cargo process, went into meltdown with the airline having to urgently prioritise the movement of medical supplies and human remains.
But the transport of some other perishable items such as fruit and flowers have been impacted significantly.
A Qantas spokesperson told news.com.au staff are working with those customers directly.
“We are working around the clock to make sure all outstanding items get where they need to go as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said.
With the IT system down, workers were forced to process shipments manually, causing backlogs in deliveries at some of the nation’s largest airports including Sydney and Melbourne.
“We recently experienced an outage during an update to our freight handling system which has led to some delays for customers,” the spokesperson said.
“The domestic backlog has now been cleared, but international freight services are still experiencing some delays.
“We appreciate this has been really frustrating for customers and we are sorry that this outage impacted them over the past couple of weeks. We’ve been posting regular website updates and getting in touch with customers directly.”
Joe Carbone, owner of the freight forwarding company Apollo Global Logistic, described the situation as a “disaster”.
He said they’ve had to wait up to 10 days to collect goods from Sydney — when usually it was available for collection within 24 hours.
“Our drivers are having to wait hours in queues to pick up cargo (due to the debacle),” Mr Carbone said.
The Melbourne-based owner’s company mostly handles airfreight for fashion companies who have tight deadlines to deliver goods to customers or stores, adding that the incident has had financial ramifications on his clients.
“Our core business is all fashion-related and it’s very time sensitive,” he said.
“Any company that uses airfreight it’s because it’s very urgent — and the costs compared to sea freight is enormous.
“When people use airfreight they expect a quick turn around, that’s the whole point. We don’t allow for are these type of delays, that are not only unacceptable, but they just shouldn’t happen.
“We are dealing with what is meant to be an industry leader.”
Mr Carbone said ultimately it’s his clients that are affected the most.
“If they don’t have products available by a required time, they have their own financial difficulties to deal with.”
“What people see in the public eye by way of issues with passengers, there’s the same issues with cargo but it’s not as well publicised.”
Qantas is one of three major container terminal operators in Australia that handle the movement of airfreight through airports, meaning the system outage has affected roughly 25 per cent of the nation’s inbound airfreight, according to The Age.