Airline volumes starting to move up

Airfreight volumes in SA are on the increase, and are returning to pre-recession levels, according to airlines and cargo operators. This is in line with a report in the UK freight publication IFW, which suggested that European airlines had noted forwarders’ space demands were on the rise, and firm airfreight contracts were once again being signed. Chris Zweigenthal, CEO of the Airlines’ Association of SA, told FTW that his members were indicating that SA freight demand was also improving – although he was hesitant to comment on the contract issue. “That’s between airlines and customers,” he said. “But, if the demand is generally increasing, it’s only natural to assume that binding contracts will also once again start to be signed up.” The latest stats available to the association are hinting at better times. “However,” said Zweigenthal, “we’ll have to wait for the full year’s figures from the International Air Transport Association (Iata) before we can say firmly what is happening. “But the decline in air cargo volumes definitely diminished significantly towards year-end.” There is also no doubt in the mind of Alwyn Rautenbach, MD of Airlink Cargo and chairman of the Air Cargo Operators’ Committee (Acoc), that things are looking a lot better. “Volumes are up,” he told FTW, “and, on a year-on-year basis, figures are beginning to resemble the levels in 2008 – before this economic crisis took a hold of things.” Rautenbach’s prediction is that relative boom times are ahead as the country begins to stock itself up for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. “Airlines are already booked solid for inbound cargo,” he said. “And, the nature of airfreight is that it caters for the urgent stuff, so I don’t expect there to be any sort of big drop-off after the World Cup.”