Airborne Express is top IATA performer

AN ERROR by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its list of the Top 30 SA airfreight export agents deprived Airborne Express of its rightful 22nd spot in the Top 30 league. Listed in that place in the figures released to FTW was Lep Africa, while Airborne was listed amongst the agents who "did not submit" for 2001. "But," said Pam MacDonald, export manager of Airborne, "the R14.5-million recorded for that company was in fact our total for the year." Worse still, she told FTW, was that when Airborne was established in SA it had shut down the Lep Africa operation and transferred its IATA licence into Airborne on August 8, 2000. The Lep Logistics company - a subsidiary of Lep in the UK - is the brand new bearer of the name in SA. But it certainly didn't have any total of export airfreight sales for 2001 submitted to IATA. However, the R14.5-m in IATA turnover produced by Airborne Express in 2001 came from a number of sources, MacDonald told FTW. "A big business for us was live animal exports," she said. "This we conducted using charter aircraft from IATA airlines, and we recorded an SA first using a Boeing 747 charter for animals out of Johannesburg." Also on the Airborne list of exports were valuable cargo and aircraft parts. "Again, both big business," said MacDonald. But the rather unique product in which her company has built a tidy niche, she told FTW, was company reports. "I know you'll find it difficult to believe," said MacDonald, "but we regularly ship thousands of kilograms of company reports around the world. "I can't believe how much it's grown." But there's no single destination market that has performed above the others. Said MacDonald: "For us, having the huge international spread of Airborne Express offices, our outgoing traffic is virtually worldwide."