Lara GuevaraSupply Chain expert (Product and Service)

Don't Panic-Air Your Inventory

7 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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1:27

Lara Guevara warns against air-freighting all inventory when ocean shipping breaks down. Air freight through the Middle East is also constrained due to cancellations by Emirates SkyCargo, KLM, and Turkish Airlines. Instead, triage your top 10 SKUs by days remaining, find alternative air routes through East Africa or South Asia, and expect to pay 2-3× normal rates.

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Every founder panicking right now is about to make the same expensive mistake: air freighting everything. When ocean gets disrupted, the reflex is just fly it. But here's what nobody tells you: air freight through the Middle East is also down. Emirates SkyCargo suspended. KLM canceled Dubai, Riyadh, and Dammam. Turkish Airlines, they canceled across the region. Air isn't the escape hatch right now. It's another bottleneck. So what do we actually do? First, triage your inventory. Not all SKUs are equal. Which products are you going to stock out of in the next 30, 60, 90 days? Start there. Second, for your highest priority SKUs, look at alternative air routing, not through the Middle East, through routes that bypass the affected airspace. Think East Africa, South Asia, or direct Asia to Europe northbound routes. Third, buy yourself time before you make any rush shipping decision. Air freight, when it is available, will be 2x to 3x the price due to demand spike and capacity crunch. The worst thing you can do right now is air freight something that's not truly urgent and blow your margin in a panic. Right now, rank your top 10 SKUs by days of inventory remaining. The ones under 45 days go to the top of your action list. Save this, share it with your ops team or your 3PL contact today.