UK imposes emergency air freight restrictions

The discovery of  two bombs on cargo jets heading from the United Kingdom to the United States shouldn't complicate major supply chains, but it may hit smaller operations.

The explosives, which originated in Yemen and were bound for a pair of Chicago synagogues, were concealed in printer cartridges. That strategy forced the UK Home Office to ban air passengers from carrying printer cartridges larger than half a kilogram in hand luggage, the shipping of cartridges via airmail from unapproved sources and all unaccompanied air freight traffic from the nation of Somalia, according to the the Financial Times newspaper.

Theresa May, the UK Home Secretary under the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition government, said that that the government will "work closely with the aviation industry, screening equipment manufacturers and others, to devise a sustainable, proportionate, long-term security regime to address the threat."

Industry experts don't see any problems for big players, which are already well integrated with global security systems. 

"If you're IBM and you’re shipping computers manufactured in Asia to the US or various parts of Europe and you're shipping two, five or 10 tons at a time, these are the organizations that already have all the security programmes and procedures in place," David Lara, the senior air freight executive for Ceva Logistcs, told the FT. 

The impact will be most keenly felt on those individuals and businesses which rely on express freight services like UPS, FedEx and DHL.