Royal Mail:Service Updates

[POSTMAN]

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General synopsis

The closure of UK airspace and airspace in parts of Europe since Thursday morning is continuing to affect our distribution of mail by air. This has impacted on some UK domestic mail, which travels by air and mail due to either leave or enter the country via UK airports.

We have robust contingency plans in place to keep as much mail moving as possible, using alternative road and rail networks to replace air services. However, despite these contingency arrangements, there may be a small delay to mail being delivered in some areas, for as long as this situation lasts.

In those parts of the country to which a high proportion of mail would normally travel by air, including Scotland, Northern Ireland, the South West and North East England, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, there may be a short delay to mail at this time.

We're really sorry for any inconvenience this causes. Please be assured we're doing all we can to keep disruption to an absolute minimum. We will get all services back to normal as soon as the situation allows.

Deliveries and collections

Normal deliveries and collections are being made in all parts of the UK today, Monday 19 April.

In Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as parts of South West and North East England, there may be some delay to mail at this time, as transporting mail to and from some of the more distant parts of the UK will take longer than normal without air transport. There may also be a small delay to mail in other parts of the country as a result.

Special Delivery™ services - temporary suspension of next day guarantee

The closure of UK airspace has impacted on our ability to transport mail around some parts of the UK. We are continuing to accept and prioritise Special Delivery™ items and we are confident that if customers use this service, the vast majority of Special Delivery™ items will arrive on time. However, we use the air network to transport a proportion of our mail around the UK and because it is not available to us at the moment, we cannot guarantee every Special Delivery™ item will be delivered on time, in all areas.

In order to provide customers with clear guidance, we have temporarily suspended the next day guarantee for Special Delivery™ items.

We will continue to make every effort to deliver these items and will restore the guarantee of next day delivery as soon as we can be sure we can honour the Special Delivery™ service promise in all areas.

Regular updates about Special Delivery™, national and international mail services will continue to be made available on these web pages.

Impact on International mail services

International mail due to leave or enter the UK is currently affected by the closure of the UK airspace, as a result of the Icelandic volcano. Because no mail is entering or leaving the UK by air at present, delays to international mail are therefore inevitable.

We have robust contingency plans in place that mean mail leaving the UK for all European destinations is being transferred to road and sea services.

Contingency plans also include the shipment of items to the USA by sea, the first of which is expected to arrive in the USA around the 30th April. We are exploring all options possible for alternative routes to destinations in the rest of the world, for as long as the situation continues. In the meantime, this mail is being stored in order for it to continue its journey as soon as alternative routes become available or flights resume.

Many European postal authorities are also using alternative transport solutions to move international mail; customers should check with the relevant foreign postal authorities for further details.

We are sorry we cannot currently estimate how long international mail will be affected by this unavoidable event, but we are continuing to deploy and review contingency plans, to keep as much of our customers' mail moving as possible.

We will continue to update these web pages about the status of mail services throughout this period; you can also keep up to date with services on twitter http://www.twitter.com/RoyalMail" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

To view further information about collection and delivery arrangements in your area, please click on your regional web page.

[axeman]

eggs in one basket ......much like the machines when they break down (very infrequent if you listen to yes you know who)