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.”