Airfreight volumes put pressure on capacity

High-tech goods switch sources from US, UK and Europe ALAN PEAT IN THE SA airfreight market the Far East has been the star performer as far as growth areas are concerned – with incoming air cargoes dominant on that air trade. Looking at stats for the last decade, Pat Biggam, forwarding development manager in Safcor Panalpina’s airfreight division, highlighted major growth in the last five years. “We’ve recorded an over tenfold volume increase since 2000,” she told FTW. “That’s mainly attributable to the high-tech, high-value goods which have switched their production sources from the US, UK and Europe to the likes of China and Singapore.” Re-consulting her data, Biggam confirmed that this growth had put “huge pressure on services” – with space on scheduled flights, especially in November and into December, in slightly short-supply. But her company has overcome that problem with its own freighter service via Luxembourg. “That gives us control over the entire supply chain from source to destination,” she said. Biggam points to the direct, two-way, scheduled services linking SA and the Far East from SAA, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines. “But,” she added, “a lot of airfreight is also going via the Middle East – especially the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – and Air Mauritius is also quite popular flying via its home airport on the Indian Ocean island.” Also digging out indicators for FTW was Arnold Garber, MD of the freight data base company, Compu Clearing. “Airfreight has grown in all directions,” he said, “but especially with the Far East.” One sign of this growth has been the twice-a-week freighter service introduced by Singapore Airlines. “As recently as a year or two ago there was no freighter,” Garber said. “But, if Singapore Airlines can now find it viable to now run this twice-weekly service with a Boeing 747F, it proves the point.” There’s also an interesting Far East connection that effectively links three continents. One part of this connection is by Malaysia Airlines, linking its home base of Kuala Lumpur in Asia, Johannesburg in South Africa and Buenos Aires in South America twice-a week – with a once-a-week direct flight between Johannesburg and Kuala Lumpur. “There’s no way the two end points can be directly connected because of the distance of a direct flight,” said Garber, “and the best way of doing it is via Johannesburg.” It’s also joined by SAA with its separate flights from Johannesburg – one with Sao Paulo in Brazil and the other with Hong Kong. “There’s a lot of potential transfer cargo in Johannesburg, and – while there’s already a lot of hub activity there – it’s a three-continent service that still has to be developed,” Garber said. A straight indicator of SA-Far East air cargo growth is the fact that in 2001 Singapore Airlines only flew six-times-a-week to Johannesburg with two of these flights extended to Cape Town. It now flies daily to Johannesburg and a separate flight to Cape Town once-a-week. “That’s in addition to the freighter,” said Garber. He also highlighted that Cathay Pacific and SAA only flew four flights a week Hong Kong-Johannesburg in 2001, but both now fly daily. “And Thai Airlines – a partner of SAA – will begin flying the SA route on October 31.