Weekly Wrap: COVID layoffs, e-commerce charters and a regional update

This week, Air Cargo World launched the layoff tracker, covering air cargo logistics layoffs from the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been mitigated for now in the United States by federal relief programs, and this week, major cargo handler Swissport announced it had received $170 million in relief funds to support its U.S. payroll.Meanwhile, cross-border e-commerce demand has soared thanks to lockdowns that have turned the retail tide in favor of online shopping compared with brick-and-mortar. Cainiao, the logistics arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has launched a new Hong Kong-Madrid route operated by Volga-Dnepr Group subsidiary AirBridgeCargo in support of cross-border e-commerce, with many more charters ahead for 2020.Finally, Latin America has been hit particularly hard by the lockdowns and passenger flight cancellations. With some service in the Americas beginning to return, cargo capacity is slowly returning in passenger aircraft bellies. Still, a forwarder with a large South American network tells Air Cargo World there is a long way to go in terms of reopening capacity.Find this and more in this week’s edition of the Weekly Wrap, featuring Editor Caryn Livingston and Publisher JJ Hornblass.