Our Correspondent Quetta
The Covid-19 crisis has placed unprecedented pressure on the international postal network,’ said the Universal Postal Union’s Director General Bishar A. Hussein at the plenary session of the organization’s Postal Operations Council (POC).
‘No one could have foreseen the exceptional global situation created by pandemic’, Hussein told the representatives of member countries who sit on the POC, said a press release.
‘The UPU’s biggest goal in these challenging times has been to keep the mail moving’, he said, adding that the postal network relies heavily on passenger airlines to transport mail.
He said International mail flows were severely affected at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the cancellation of international flights and the closure of airports.
‘Based on figures from the International Civil Aviation Organization by April 2020, the overall number of passengers fell 92 per cent compared to 2019 levels’ he said.
In 2020, overall international traffic fell by 74 per cent, a colossal total of some 1.4 billion passengers.
He said responding to the immense disruption, the Universal Postal Union contacted postal operators and invited them to reach out to their surface cargo providers, and to focus on new transport methods, including rail, sea and road.
