Africa’s project cargo spurs growth in air express sector

Africa’s thriving project cargo sector is ratcheting up airfreight demand – particularly in the express sector, says Iain Clark, managing director of Chapman Freeborn Airchartering South Africa. “Many of Africa’s remote locations can often only be accessed by air, and we are dealing more and more with an increase in short lead time requests to get equipment to or from sites.” The oil and gas, and often mining as well, sectors are by their very nature unpredictable and can often require the movement of cargo with very little forewarning. At the same time the locations are remote and accessing by road is often difficult due to the lack of infrastructure in Africa. According to Clark, this is one of the reasons for the steady growth in volumes. “Poor road and other infrastructure does impact on projects, especially if it is time-sensitive cargo that has to move quickly.” Clark said while Africa had traditionally always been a difficult market due to the lack of infrastructure, it was the lack of harmonisation of regulations in various countries that continued to be challenging. This is despite some improvements in recent years. Regional organisations such as Comesa, SADC and the EAC – along with the African Union – have been calling for more harmonisation in an effort not only to increase trade between African countries but also to make doing business easier. “Finding ways of overcoming these challenges is part and parcel of the job,” said Clark. “One of our key strengths is having the right personnel on board so that we are in a position to deploy specialist project managers to oversee operations on the ground across Africa.” He said many of the Chapman Freeborn staff had obtained the highest level of military and government security clearance and processes through years of operational experience. “If you want to operate in Africa successfully then you need people of this calibre on the ground who are familiar with a specific country and its regulations.” According to Clark, one of the reasons why air chartering is also gaining ground is its ability to handle specialist equipment and take it directly to a site. “Both from a logistics and security point of view it outweighs the cost factor.” The company last month secured a new strategic cooperation agreement with Lufthansa Cargo and handles all of its third-party chartering requirements – allowing the airline to focus on marketing charter capacity on its own fleet, he said. The agreement gives Lufthansa Cargo’s international sales force and client base access to the full range of charter aircraft through Chapman Freeborn’s global network – from helicopters and light aircraft to giant Antonov AN-225 aircraft. CAPTION Iain Clark ... ‘an increase in short lead time requests to get equipment to or from sites.’