The decision by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) to ground some SA Express planes and suspend the airline’s operations will have little significant impact on the transport of airfreight according to BidAir Cargo commercial director, Roy Solomons.
Last week, the SACAA suspended the airline’s Air Operator's Certificate as well as the Aircraft Maintenance Organisation (AMO) approvals. In addition, nine of the airline's 21 aircraft were grounded after their Certificates of Airworthiness (CoA) were suspended.
SA Express spokesperson Mbali Zibi told FTW Online that all cargo that had been booked on the airline before its suspension had been cleared at all stations – namely Kimberley, Bloemfontein and Richards Bay, with cargo to Richards Bay having been redirected to Durban.
Solomons pointed out that while SA Express’s cargo routes were extensive, it did not generally handle large volumes of airfreight.
Because of the type of aircraft used by SA Express, cargo capacity was limited by the amount of baggage space utilised on every flight, he added.
Additionally, the destinations that the airline serviced were predominantly catered for by roadfreight transporters.
He added, however, that this move by the SACAA would ultimately benefit SA Airlink – a sentiment shared by SA Airlink executive manager, Alwyn Rautenbach.
“I agree that this has definitely been beneficial for SA Airlink as we have been handling most of the freight meant for travel on SA Express planes since the announcement was made to suspend the airline’s operations,” he told FTW Online. “We cover most of the routes flown by the airline.”
Rautenbach also pointed out that there were many alternatives for customers who were using SA Express to transport air cargo as all its routes were covered and replaced by other carriers such as South African Airways and Mango.
South African Airways announced a replacement capacity strategy in order to sustain the SA Express network which SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali confirmed would extend to cargo shipments as well.
