Podcast: Lessons from Iran war disruption

Freighter operators remain optimistic about the prospects for the industry and its resilience in dealing with crises, drawing from the handling of disruption caused by the Iran war. As the war broke out on Feb. 28, Compass Air Cargo and Atlas Air were among the many carriers that collectively had fifty or so freighters stuck in the region . Atlas, for one, had a 777F (69788) in Abu Dhabi (AUH) and a 747-8F (60118) in maintenance in Tel Aviv (TLV), Graham Perkins, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa for Atlas Air, said during the opening panel discussion at Cargo Facts EMEA 2026 in Brussels last week. “All the focus at that point in time was on our trying to get our people out, those who were not based there, looking after our people who were living there and are based in the [United Arab Emirates] in particular,” Perkins said. “And then, of course, the aircraft themselves. So, it was people first, and airplanes second in that regard.” “It was people first, and airplanes second.” — Graham Perkins, SVP of sales and marketing for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa for Atlas Air. Now that most operations have resumed, the industry should learn to react to major events in an even more agile manner to address the demands of customers , Teleport Chief Business Officer Jan Philipp Poter said during the panel. “The world continues to grow; e-commerce continues to grow, and other people move things by air — it’s a structural part of how we move things, and that will stay,” he said. “So, that optimistic view, I think, is important to keep, especially in times of crisis. And if you’re optimistic, you have your crisis playbook and you stay connected, I think you are well-prepared.” The industry should also take pride in how it pivoted during the initial stages of the war, Compass Air Cargo Chief Commercial Officer Rainer Mueller said. “Looking at what has been managed in the Middle East over the last five or six weeks, it is amazing,” he said. “And I’m 100% convinced that we are ready even for the next crisis.” Tune in to this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear an excerpt from the opening panel at Cargo Facts EMEA 2026, moderated by Editor Jeff Lee. A transcript is available below. This transcript has been generated by software and some transcription errors may remain. Jeff Lee Hello and welcome to another episode of Cargo Facts Connect, the podcast of cargo facts, the newsletter of record for the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. I’m Jeff Lee, editor of Cargo Facts, and it’s Friday, the 8th of May. Today, we bring you an excerpt from last week's Cargo Facts EMEA 2026 in Brussels, where executives on the opening panel took the audience back to the day the Iran war broke out, just over two months ago, and how they reacted to the news. They shared their stories of having freighters stuck in the region and discussed what the industry has learned after another crisis. Take a listen. Jeff Lee Now, let's go back to February 28th. What happened to each of you, and what were you all doing that day? Rainer, let's start with you. Rainer Mueller Yeah, thanks a lot Jeff and thanks a lot to Cargo Facts for hosting us over here, I think it's exactly the right time and the right place to have these discussions. 28th of February. OK, it started as a normal day of operation for us. It meant three 737s doing their ACMI jobs over here in Europe. One just had been transferred to DWC, based in DWC, and four seven four sevens, doing their ACMI job with Home Base DWC operating for our customer from there. So it was, of course, it was a shock to the whole organization. And what we did is we started looking at our ERP just to check okay, what should be done. Thanks, God. We did not have to start it to implement it. But we were all the time looking at it. And yeah, then, of course, we were first of all looking at our staff teams. We just had started to transfer organization teams to UAE. So of course, you can imagine that there was a lot of a lot of concern in the organization. When it came to the aircraft. Okay, by occasion for the 4 747s were out of country, so one in Hong Kong, one in Chicago, one in Liege, one in Zaragoza, on behalf of our customer. And what then started is looking okay, what is the situation? Being close to the authorities, being close to the to the embassies who were responsible for us, Turkey and Bulgaria, close to our customer who was in the middle of this. And then step by step, starting to bring back the aircraft to DWC, allowing our customer to start to restart the operation. So, big shock, first concern, of course, team, everybody, hopefully being safe, taking care of those who were concerned of this particular situation, and then, of course, being close to the customer and discuss with the customer what is the next step. Jeff Lee Very interesting story. Graham, you have a much bigger fleet to worry about. Graham Perkins Indeed. So I'll start off as well by saying thank you very much for your organization prior to this was phenomenal. And to the cargo facts team, I think I said to JJ last night, your ability to pivot was phenomenal. So well done to everybody that's been that has been part of that. So thank you. Listen. I think the story we could almost just repeat, right? We did agree earlier on that maybe the difficult questions that we would pass them on to Rainer but this one, I think is okay. It's very much a similar story. I will tell you personally that I was at Air Cargo India the week before, had flown back on the last BA flight out of Doha on Friday the 27th with obviously no inclination of anything going on. Very normal, right? Had it been the flight the next day, I would probably still be in well I wouldn't be in Doha now, but it would have been in Doha for quite a while. So I woke up that morning, and as it was all sort of kicking off, what we found on our side was we actually had two aircraft stuck in the region, one of which was undergoing some maintenance work in Tel Aviv and and then the other one was actually in Abu Dhabi for the aircraft that we have Etihad. So all the focus at that point in time was on our trying to get our people out, those who were not based there, looking after our people who were living there and are based in the UAE in particular. And then, of course, the aircraft themselves, right? So we were it was it was it was people first. It was airplanes second in that regard. And I will tell you right now that the aircraft that was the biggest priority for us was the one that was in Tel Aviv. So what we ended up doing that day, I remember clearly starting at sort of seven o'clock in the morning, my time, I'm in London. So it had just, you know, kicked off a few hours before that, that the focus was on buttoning up that aircraft as quickly as we possibly could, which happened thanks to the work that was done by our the maintenance vendor and so forth in Tel Aviv, and then tracking down all of our team that was in Tel Aviv trying to get into the airport, which was about a 1010, hour process, to try to get them there. Every time an alarm went off, the transport had to pull over to a shelter park for a while come back at the airport itself. They. They tried to get through immigration three times. Every time the immigration officer showed up, the sirens went off. They were gone again. So it was, it was very, very much a minute by minute process that day at Tel Aviv. And when the aircraft finally did depart, we saw it. I was on flight radar, I think, the entire day, much to the chagrin of my my wife, but when that aircraft did depart, we went out over the water, low for quite a while, and I didn't actually breathe again until I saw him climbing. So that was the big the big one for us. The next one was our triple seven in Abu Dhabi, which actually was on the ground there for about five days. We finally got the opportunity during a window to say that it was safe to get our airplane out, which we then positioned everybody on board. Had the airplane buttoned up. It was full of cargo as well. So that was a good thing. And as the doors were closed and the ground agents were getting ready to depart, the airplane, Abu Dhabi airport came under attack, and so the result of that was we had an airplane full of fuel, we had people on board, and we had incoming into the airport. So it was a bit of a panic. Ground handlers went away, and pilots were on board asking for direction. We, of course, had to just watch the situation. The airport did a quick fog sweep of the runway, and the airplane departed for Amsterdam, and that flight was the most watched departure on flight radar on that day. So it was exciting times, but at the same time, we wanted to make sure that our teams were all safe. We were in constant communication with customers, as you said, as well, just to sort of nobody knew. There was no playbook for this. There was no answers, and luckily, level heads did prevail during the process. So that was that was our experience. Jeff Lee Fascinating. I was one of those 1000s of people watching that flight. Jan, how about you? Jan Philipp Poter Thanks, Jeff for for having me, I would also like to maybe start by saying that I think it's very important that everyone is in the room today. I think for a lot of players in the cargo industry, this is a time of crisis, and first things that come to mind for people is duty, travel and travel to conferences like this. So I think it's important that we're here. I came all the way from Malaysia, maybe one of the furthest travels in the room. So it's a sign that we value being with partners and industry colleagues actually is a way out of a crisis, rather than retreating and sitting at home. So I think that's an acknowledgement for everyone the room that is here today, and clearly you see it the same way. The 28th of February is two days behind my birthday. So I remember it was my birthday weekend. As I said, I'm based in Malaysia, so I was trekking somewhere in the jungle, as we do over there. I think that the 28th was, was another sign that, I think, at the moment, if you feel there is stability it's an illusion, I think we're in a time where unpredictability is just the rules of the game at the moment, has been like that for a few years, and I think it will be like that for a few years in the future as well. And I think it's more about a mindset and another reminder that stability at the moment is just not the way to plan. We didn't have aircraft in the region, so teleport does two things. We move cargo on the back of air Asia's network in Asia, mainly Southeast Asia and wider APAC. And we use 55 other airlines, passenger and freighter airlines, to move things globally. We didn't have aircraft in the region. That's a good news for us on that day, but we were planning to launch freighter operations into Bahrain actually, and we had our first operation test flight about 10 days before that. We were all ready to go, and then obviously put a hold on that until today. I'm very happy to hear that my colleague from DHL in Bahrain is optimistic about the situation in Bahrain and reopening of the airspace there. So we're optimistic to restart that project soon again and use the Middle East really, as a jumping port into the rest of the world. So a little less immediate impact for us on the day, but there is strategic impact, because we're planning on moving things and building a hub out in Bahrain this year. So for our planning for what we do next this obviously has an impact. Jeff Lee Rainer and Graham, so you talk about getting the some of your pilots and crews out, but what about some of your other staff working in the region. Did you have to get them out? And how did you get them out? Rainer Mueller In fact, as I mentioned before, we just started to base staff and not just shuttle staff in and out, and by vast majority, 95% stayed. So yes, there was some, some of our colleagues who had, who had concerns families. So we found. Solutions for them, but the vast majority stayed, and I'm talking about Pilots, I'm talking about load masters, mechanics, even administrative staff sitting in the same boat as the colleagues of our customer. So that was, I think, one of the, thanks God, surprising, positive, surprising things. Jeff Lee Graham? Graham Perkins And on our side, so we have no flight crew based in the UAE or in the in the region, but we had absolutely everybody who is based there remain. Nobody wanted to leave. They were happy. Families were there, quite honestly. And we had a very, very robust communication platform that was set up with everybody. So we were checking in with a couple of employees were actually out of the region, but their families were still there. So we had the families involved in this communication piece. We were looking after pets. We were looking after people. Nobody left, so absolutely committed to be there and really just waiting for things to open up again. So no desire. Jeff Lee Now, just to end on a positive note, I think it's important to remind ourselves, as you were saying, Rainer, how quickly we all pivoted and the things we've already done and learned from the pandemic. So how would what more can we do? And what have you learned in terms of preparing for and dealing with uncertainty and volatility in the market? Rainer? Rainer Mueller Definitely one of the learnings out of this is it already has been mentioned before that, okay, operational safety, security requirements and commercial activities. Everything has to be looked at and managed at the same time the past. Sometimes it was only about operations, then it was about safety, then it was about commercial issues. But now everything came together, and what we need to do is in the future and also being prepared for the next crisis, which sure is going to come, is to combine all of this and then take your right decisions and manage this process. And what, what I understood from what happened is that we are already at a very high stage. So being looking at what has been managed in the Middle East over the last five or six weeks. This is amazing. And I'm 100% convinced that we are ready even for the next crisis. Graham Perkins And on our side, I would say cargo loves chaos, right? The cargo industry loves chaos. So the one constant is going to be change, like what you mentioned, and then the ability, then to pivot, to be able to address and adjust to that change, to be flexible is critical, because there will be those ups and downs. And so what's the next one? When's the next one coming? The fundamentals of our business, though, the industry, is strong, they're strong right, over the longer term, there's no question that capacity over the next 10 years has only got about a one to 2% growth factor attached to it. That's because you've got retirements, you've got delayed deliveries, you've got program certifications. You're talking a one to 2% growth rate in capacity. Demand is still in that three to 4% range. Those two lines diverge over time, and that will continue to happen. So the fundamentals are there, right. E commerce, which is what 5.4 million tons ish a year, still has a 14% growth rate. The new thing are the data center requirements. Already you're seeing tonnage of four, you know, 4 million tons a year for data center replenishment, which, by the way, is a three year cycle. So whatever goes in today has to be replaced in three years time. That's 19% growth. So the demand will continue to go up. Capacity will continue to be restricted, so the medium to longer term fundamentals of the business are there for us, and we should all be very happy about that, but it's dealing with those, those ebbs and flows as they occur during the course of you know, whether it's this month, next month, six months from now, and if this conflict continues for six months, like you said before, then we're going to have to have to have another review of everything, again. But where it sits today. I think it's looking, looking good. Jeff Lee Jan? Jan Philipp Poter Three things, I think, first is I agree with Graham. I think the optimism of demand is still there. The world continues to grow. E commerce continues to grow. Other people move things by air. It's a structural part of how we move things, and that will stay there. So that optimistic view, I think, is important to keep that, especially in times of crisis. Number two, I think the industry, over last decade, has built a very strong muscle on how to deal with crisis. I think none of us have to reinvent the ways on how we do crisis meetings. I think we've all got our playbook that we can very readily activate. And I think this industry is one that reacts to crisis much quicker and much more agile than many, many other industries do, right? And I think that's good. And I think many players also thrive in crisis, actually. So I would also caution not to put those plans and those SOPs too far away. I mean, we haven't talked about much about fuel supply and stuff. There's definitely a world where this crisis is not over yet. We all see there's definitely a time of stability right now, but we'll see maybe we need those playbooks again in a few weeks or months from now. And the last thing maybe the way I started this, and maybe I want to end it the same way. I think finding time in crisis to come out of your offices and come out of your kind of crisis meanings that you definitely consume a lot of time and connect with people and get a sense of what the reality looks out there, and connect to partners find ways, is better than just reading about it in the news or someone trying to second guess what is happening. So that's why I think coming to places like this and other opportunities is important in terms of crisis, and that's it. And I think if you're optimistic, you have your crisis playbook, and you stay connected, I think you are well prepared for the next one. Jeff Lee Great. Well. Thank you so much for all your insight and your comments, and it's reassuring to hear that things are going well actually not not all doing good. So best of luck in the months to come. And we hope you've all given us some perspective and clarity and confidence in the months ahead. So thank you very much. Jeff Lee That was Rainer Mueller of Compass Air Cargo; Graham Perkins of Atlas Air; and Jan Philipp Poter of Teleport, speaking during the opening session at Cargo Facts EMEA in Brussels last week. And that’s all the time we have today. For more coverage of the freighter aircraft market, visit cargofacts.com. Thank you very much for tuning in, and join us again next time. Subscribe to Cargo Facts Connect on iTunes or Spotify , or download the episode on Transistor .

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