ACR brings new airlines on board

The recent economic recession fundamentally changed the way many business sectors operate, with the air freight industry no exception. “Market rates are almost a thing of the past. If you don’t have contract or ad hoc rates in place for almost every shipment you don’t see a profit. Unfortunately this is the general trend and we cannot see it changing anytime soon,” said Bennie Greyling, sales and operations manager for the cargo general sales and aviation services firm ACR. “We have managed to keep most of our rates the same but the credit must go to improved service and working with reputable carriers,” Greyling said. Recently ACR secured three new carriers out of Johannesburg and has added Aeroméxico services to its off-line carrier services. “We have just launched a new carrier called Swift Air with a service between Johannesburg and BLZ and LLW (Blantyre and Lilongwe airports in Malawi) on days 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7. We have also been appointed the GSSA for Eritrean Airlines and Korongo Airlines. Those will be up and running during March. Korongo will offer a service between Johannesburg and FBM (Lubumbashi in the DRC) and Eritrean Airlines will service Johannesburg to ASM (the Eritrean capital Asmara’s airport),” said Greyling. An improving number of loads on its flights and a customer trend of increasing their load weights may be a harbinger of better prospects for the air cargo industry, he said. One perennial challenge for the air freight business, Greyling said, is the general demand for capacity. “Most of the time we find we have more cargo than we can offer space for on some routes, mainly with our services to West Africa onboard Brussels Airline.”