Airfreight industry must grow southbound volumes

Strengthening its African foothold is a key strategy for SAA Cargo which is ready to deal with the challenges posed by this move. “The imbalance of cargo in Africa is not new,” SAA Cargo general manager Tleli Makhetha told FTW. “What has to happen, however, is for us to start looking at ways of increasing southbound cargo to firstly improve rates and secondly to make it more viable to fly to certain areas.” He said for more rotations to be added it was necessary that aeroplanes did not return with empty bellies to South Africa. “As an industry we must work together to address this. The ability to move cargo effectively in and out of the region is important and makes the difference in the service one gives. While southbound cargo is improving on a continuous basis, we do need to drastically increase it.” According to Makhetha this also means reducing delays. “Communication in Africa is notoriously bad. Improving communication will go a long way to improving the level of service and addressing issues such as delays. We believe if communications can effectively be improved one will see a notable difference. Not only communication between us and our customers, but also between countries.” As the world continues to invest in Africa, infrastructure poses a major challenge, said Makhetha. “Our infrastructure on the continent is not as good as we want it to be, but I think if we work together it is something that can be overcome. We should also be investing in our infrastructure and upgrading it all the time.”